NEW YORK — The jury at Harvey Weinstein’s trial seated Friday includes six white males despite the prosecution’s pointed complaints over the lack of white women chosen to judge the accused sexual predator.
Jury selection in the former Hollywood producer’s much-anticipated sexual abuse trial wrapped up with a panel of the six white men, three black women, two white women and a black man. The three alternate jurors were a white man, a Hispanic woman and a black woman.
Harvey Weinstein and his attorney Donna Rotunno arrive at a Manhattan courthouse to attend jury selection for his trial on rape and sexual assault charges, Friday. AP Photo/Mark Lennihan
Assistant District Attorney Joan Illuzzi on Friday renewed her objection from a day earlier that the defense was “systematically eliminating a class of people from this jury” — the white female candidates for the panel.
Weinstein, 67, faces trial in Manhattan Supreme Court for the alleged 2013 rape of a woman in a Manhattan hotel room and for allegedly performing a forcible sex act on a second woman in 2006 inside his Manhattan apartment. If convicted of the top charge, he faces life imprisonment.
More than 90 women, including several top Hollywood actresses, came forward in the last several years with allegations of Weinstein’s potentially criminal behavior.
Defense lawyer Arthur Aidala, after bumping one white female from a seat on the jury, contended that the 26-year-old candidate would be unfamiliar with events from the 1990s that will be raised at the fallen movie mogul’s trial.
“That was a different time,” he said. “She’d have to read the history books to learn what happened.”
Illuzzi noted that Aidala had no such qualms about approving a male juror of the same age.
“They already seated a 26-year-old!” she said. “So what the hell are they talking about?”
The defense also bumped a Hispanic woman who worked as a model in her younger days from a seat in the jury box after arguing she could harbor a grudge against Weinstein — though the two had never met.
“She says in (Facebook) posts that she’s an actress who didn’t make it,” Aidala said. “Who knows how she’s going to hold this against Mr. Weinstein, who used to be the person who selected people (for his films)?”
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