Allegheny County jury tells judge it is deadlocked in South Side sex assault case

The jury deliberating the sexual assault case against former Istanbul Sofra owner Adnan Pehlivan told the judge Thursday afternoon that it was deadlocked.

Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Anthony M. Mariani asked the jury of seven men and five women to continue their deliberations until 4 p.m. and return Friday morning.

The jurors did not include any kind of breakdown in their note, although they did use an exclamation point, writing, “Your honor, we are deadlocked!”

The panel began deliberating late Monday afternoon.

Pehlivan, 50, is accused of meeting a group of three women at Kopy’s bar on Pittsburgh’s South Side on May 15, 2018, before following them back to their home on Josephine Street, breaking into the home and assaulting one of them. He is charged with involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, burglary and sexual assault.

The prosecution told the jury in closing arguments that Pehlivan plied the women with drinks at the bar to get them drunk, and that he had planned out the attack.

The defense claimed that the alleged victim invited Pehlivan back to her house that night, but told him that he should follow her and her friends home because she didn’t want them to know.

Then, the defense said, as Pehlivan and the then-24-year-old woman were becoming intimate, she became upset and “freaked out.”

On Tuesday, the panel sent the judge a list of eight questions, including:

• Did the alleged victim decline a blood test at the hospital?
• What time did Pehlivan look up his home on Zillow while at the bar?
• How much time did Pehlivan and the alleged victim spend alone in the bar?
• Is there a transcript of the woman’s cellphone activity that night?
• Could they see the full report from the alleged victim’s visit to the hospital and sex assault exam?

• Could they see a transcript of previously entered testimony?
• Could they watch surveillance video from inside the bar that night, including when Pehlivan put his hand in one of the women’s purse while she wasn’t looking? They specifically asked to view the video with the ability to zoom in on specific portions.

Since then, the panel also has requested to see the video of Pehlivan following the alleged victim and her friends home that night, as well as body camera video from a Pittsburgh police officer who responded to the 911 call, as well as the audio of that call.

This is the second time Pehlivan is being tried in case. The first time, in March 2019, ended with the jury acquitting him of stalking and simple assault, but hanging on the remaining charges.