Feb. 26 (Bloomberg) -- A juror in the perjury case of Lewis ``Scooter'' Libby was dismissed after receiving out-of-court information about the case. Deliberations continued with the 11 remaining jurors, who ended their fourth day without a verdict.

The female juror came in contact with information about the case by accident, U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton said after discussing the situation with her, the jury foreperson and lawyers. The judge ruled that the juror, an art historian, couldn't remain on the panel.

``She did have contact with information related to this case,'' Walton said in court in Washington today. ``It wasn't intentional on her part, it was a misunderstanding of what I had been telling her throughout the trial.'' The juror had worked for decades as a print curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Deliberations began in the case on Feb. 21. Libby, 56, is charged with obstruction of justice, perjury and making false statements to investigators probing whether Bush administration officials deliberately leaked Central Intelligence Agency official Valerie Plame's identity to retaliate against her husband, war critic Joseph Wilson. Libby was Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff.

Walton said other jurors weren't tainted by the information learned by the dismissed juror, which he didn't describe. To avoid the potential for a mistrial, he has instructed the jury throughout the trial not to view or listen to any news or other reports about the case.

Start Over

Walton told the remaining seven women and four men on the jury to resume deliberations. Defense lawyer Ted Wells told the judge that adding an alternate to return the panel to 12 members would require it to start over, which he said wouldn't be fair to Libby.

By removing one juror, ``it's not like we're on the cliff of some mistrial,'' Wells said. Walton said one of two remaining alternates could be called if another jury member is lost.

Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald said the government preferred a 12-member jury.

Libby resigned upon being indicted in October 2005. Neither he nor Cheney testified in the trial.

Prosecutors told the jury that Libby deliberately lied to federal investigators and a grand jury about the leak to keep his job. Libby's lawyers said he was too busy with national security matters to remember events involving the disclosure of Plame's identity, and that many prosecution witnesses also had faulty memories about the case.

The case is U.S. vs. Libby, 05-394, U.S. District Court, the District of Columbia.

To contact the reporter on this story: Cary O'Reilly in Washington at caryoreilly@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: February 26, 2007 17:19 EST