NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The judge in the corruption trial of ex-Tyco CEO Dennis Kozlowski sent the jury home Friday after deliberations almost fell apart but asked the panel to come back and try again Monday.
The three women and nine men who have heard evidence in the case since last fall sent a note to the judge Friday morning saying they couldn't keep deliberating in good faith, prompting the judge to say he wasn't optimistic that the trial would continue.
But New York State Supreme Court Judge Michael Obus asked the panelists to keep working anyway.
The deliberations had erupted into rancor late Thursday, with jury notes to the judge describing the atmosphere as poisonous.
Obus denied the second defense request for a mistrial in as many days early Friday, and tried to encourage the jurors to work through their differences and reach a verdict.
"It isn't surprising that things would get heated or incendiary... It happens to other juries, and they manage to pull themselves together. You can do that as well," Obus said.
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The jury then resumed deliberating Friday morning in the trial of Kozlowski and ex-finance chief Mark Swartz, who are accused of looting Tyco of $600 million. The trial has been one of the most closely watched of the recent corporate fraud cases.
Obus declined a mistrial request by the defense Thursday when the jurors first sent notes to the judge indicating they were having problems.
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 The judge in the corporate trial of two former Tyco executives sent jurors home after deliberations nearly fell apart. CNNfn's Mary Snow reports.
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"The atmosphere in the jury room has turned poisonous. The jury contends that one member has stopped deliberating in good faith," the jurors wrote late Thursday, adding, however, that they still believed they could reach a verdict.
A second note to the judge just 20 minutes later, apparently from the juror singled out in the first note, read, in part: "[T]hey refuse to recognize the right to at least one juror to have a good faith belief that the prosecution has not proved its case that the defendants are guilty.
"Perhaps this jury cannot continue," the later note continued. "What shall we do?"
The highly complex trial has already run for nearly six months in a New York State court. The trial began with jury selection on Sept. 29, 2003. Opening arguments began Oct. 7.
Kozlowski and Swartz are accused of bilking the diversified manufacturer out of $170 million from unauthorized bonuses and personal loans, while another $430 was obtained through dishonest stock sales, according to the charges.
Both defendants have pleaded not guilty to charges of securities fraud, conspiracy, grand larceny and falsifying business records.
Each man faces up to 30 years in a New York state prison if convicted of all charges.
The prosecution entered some 700 exhibits into evidence and called four dozen witnesses, including several former Tyco directors who denied approving millions of dollars worth of personal loans and bonuses for the former executives.
Kozlowski didn't take the stand during the trial and Swartz was the only defense witness.
Prosecutors sought to highlight Kozlowski's lavish lifestyle and spending habits during the trial. Video clips of a $2 million 40th birthday party that he threw for his second wife, Karen Mayo, in Sardinia, Italy, made its way into the trial. Kozlowski charged Tyco $1 million for the celebration.
Jurors didn't get to see some of the racier scenes cut from the video -- including images of a replica of Michelangelo's David spewing vodka from his penis and a breast-shaped birthday cake -- but they got a glimpse of a performance by singer Jimmy Buffett, who was paid $250,000 for the event.
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