Ramirez said prosecutors would look at streamlining their case and focusing on different issues.

Jurors had first indicated they were deadlocked on Wednesday by an 8-4 vote. On Thursday, they said the vote was 7-5, but by Friday, it was 6-6.

Juror Charles Schweppe said the panel believed it didn’t have the evidence to reach a verdict.

“We didn’t hear everything we wanted to hear that all of us would be satisfied to give a guilty verdict,” said Schweppe, a patent lawyer. “There just wasn’t enough of a case.”

Prosecutors accuse Slade of misspending more than $138,000 in TSU funds on landscaping for her homes, more than $100,000 in furniture and other home decorations and about $60,000 on a high-tech security system. They say she also illegally used school funds to pay for bar tabs, manicures, spa treatments and exercise classes.

DeGeurin says all his client’s spending was done to improve the school’s status and recruit donors. He accused prosecutors of making her a scapegoat for TSU’s problems.

Quintin Wiggins, described as Slade’s “yes man” and accomplice by prosecutors, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in May for his part in the misspending.

Two other TSU workers were indicted in the spending scandal. Charges have been dropped against one, and the other’s trial is pending.

The allegations against Slade coincided with reports that revealed a pattern of financial mismanagement at TSU and prompted Gov. Rick Perry to call for a state takeover of the university that was later put on hold. The nine-member board of regents resigned at Perry’s request.

--Associated Press

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