A juror in Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens’s corruption trial was dismissed Sunday night by the judge presiding over the proceedings due to the death of her father.

An alternate juror will take the woman’s place and deliberations in the case will have to restart, said Judge Emmet Sullivan.

Sullivan said the “the court is inclined to excuse [juror No. 4] from further proceedings” because of her father’s death. The jury been deliberating for two days.

Juror No. 4 told a U.S. Marshal last Thursday that she had to leave the Washington for California for a family emergency.

Court officials have tried to contact the woman since Friday but were unable to reach her.

“She has, for whatever reason, chosen not to communicate further with the court,” Sullivan said.

The alternate juror, a woman, attended the four-week trial and was dismissed before the jury began deliberations on Oct. 22. She is scheduled to appear in court Monday and will be briefed by Sullivan.

Stevens, 84, is the longest serving Republican senator. He is up for reelection Nov. 4 in a tough race against Mark Begich, the Democratic mayor of Anchorage.

Stevens was indicted in July and charged with seven felony counts of making false statements on his Senate financial disclosure forms in connection with $250,0000 in gifts he received from the VECO Corporation and the company’s chief executive Bill Allen. Stevens plead not guilty to the charges.

The senator’s defense team had urged the judge to allow the deliberations to proceed with just 11 jurors to avoid a restart, but Sullivan refused because the possibility of losing another juror could cause “major problems.” Besides, Sullivan said, “they haven’t been deliberating that long.”  

The jury has been beset by problems since they took the case.

Last week, the jury foreman said last last week that juror No. 9, a woman, had made “violent outbursts” during the proceedings and was “rude.”

Last Thursday, the jury sent a note to Sullivan asking him to dismiss juror No. 9.

“She is being rude, disrespectful and unreasonable. She has had violent outbursts with other jurors, and jurors are getting off course. She is not following the laws and rules as stipulated in the instructions,” the jury said in a note to Sullivan.

Sullivan declined to dismiss juror No. 9 but he gave the jury a “pep talk” and then ordered them to continue with deliberations.

“I have an obligation to ensure that there are no violent outbursts in the jury room,” Sullivan told the jury.