DENVER -- A source close to Alex Midyette's child abuse trial told a Boulder newspaper that two jurors have been dismissed because they had reportedly developed a romantic relationship that made other members of the jury uncomfortable.

The report was published by the Daily Camera on its Web site Wednesday.

According to the story, the man and woman were dismissed from the 16-member jury on Tuesday, after people reported seeing them walking arm-in-arm together and giggling with each other.

The former jury showed up Wednesday and sat in the spectator section of the courtroom but he refused to answer questions when approached in the hallway by a reporter.

The source told the Camera that the dismissal came about "not because of any violation of the court's orders, but because of a close, apparently romantic, relationship that had developed between them, as observed by a number of participants in the trial and other jurors."

"Romance can blossom in the work place, but there's a time a place to show affection, and according to published reports, they didn't respect those boundaries," said Craig Silverman, a Denver trial attorney and radio talk show host.

The jury is now made up of nine women and five men, including two alternates.

Attorneys were scheduled to wrap up on Wednesday, but defense lawyer Paul McCormick called in sick.

Twenty-nine-year-old Alex Midyette is accused in the 2006 death of 11-week-old Jason Midyette. Prosecutors say Jason had 37 broken bones.

Midyette's attorneys say Jason had a metabolic disease and wasn't abused. A doctor testified that Jason had bone abnormalities that were misidentified as fractures.

A doctor testifying for prosecutors said Jason's skull was fractured before he died.

Jason's mother, Molly Midyette, was convicted of child abuse for failing to get medical attention for her son. She is serving a 16-year sentence

Read more on this story in the Boulder Daily Camera online.