Jury selection heads into next week at Weinstein rape retrial

NEW YORK (AP) — Dozens more people were screened Thursday as potential jurors for Harvey Weinstein's New York rape retrial, but the selection wrapped up for the week with several slots still to be filled.

The panel started taking shape Wednesday, when five women and four men were picked for the redo of the landmark #MeToo-era trial. Then, more than 140 other prospective jurors were brought into court Thursday to begin the multistep selection process.

As in earlier rounds, about two-thirds were excused after raising their hands to signal that they had schedule conflicts or felt they couldn’t be fair and impartial because of the nature and extensive news coverage of the case.

Even one person who didn't raise a hand soon had second thoughts, telling the judge — without other potential jurors in earshot — that she wasn't sure she could disregard all that she'd read about the case over the years. Judge Curtis Farber let her go.

Ultimately, about 50 people advanced to the next stage of questioning Thursday afternoon.

The court day ended before getting into in-depth inquiries about their occupations, life experiences, views of the #MeToo movement, and more. Jury selection will pause in observance of Good Friday, then resume Monday. Still, one woman volunteered to Farber that she's in the news business, though she vowed to avoid reading about the case if selected. She's due to be questioned further to determine whether she should be excused.

Weinstein, an Oscar-winning producer and onetime Hollywood power broker, is charged with raping two different women — an aspiring actor and a production assistant — on separate occasions. He is also charged with forcing oral sex on another woman.

Weinstein, 73, has pleaded not guilty. He says all his sexual experiences have been consensual.

Allegations about him emerged publicly in 2017, fueled the #MeToo movement against sexual misconduct and led to multiple prosecutions. The ex-movie mogul was convicted of rape at his first New York trial in 2020. Two years later, he was convicted in Los Angeles of a separate rape charge that he also denied.

Then his New York conviction and 23-year prison sentence were overturned by the state's highest court last year. That reversal led to the retrial, where the charges and expected evidence differ somewhat from the original trial.

Prosecutors and defense lawyers are to choose 12 jurors and six alternates.

Farber is overseeing the painstaking process: The nine jurors selected so far were whittled from roughly 140 people who went through initial screening earlier this week.

Prospective jurors can be excused for various reasons, ranging from language barriers to prior experiences with — or opinions about — people or issues in a case. Prosecutors and defense lawyers also get a limited number of chances to eliminate potential jurors without giving a reason.