The jury for Harvey Weinstein’s upcoming trial has been confirmed, with seven men and five women selected.
It comes after model Gigi Hadid was formerly dismissed, after she was chosen, as a resident of New York City, to face jury selection.
The 12 jurors who will take in the testimony beginning next week were chosen on Friday after a lengthy two-week process.
On his way out of the courthouse, an ambling Weinstein – who recently had surgery on his back and is currently using the aid of a Zimmer frame – refused to answer questions about the jury selection, instead suggesting reporters ‘ask Donna’, referring to his lawyer Donna Rotunno.
Weinstein, 67, is facing charges of rape and sexual assault after numerous allegations came to light in 2017.
The disgraced film producer, whose companies have been behind such films as Pulp Fiction, The English Patient and Shakespeare In Love, is charged with raping one woman in a hotel room in the New York borough in 2013, and performing a forcible sex act on the second woman in 2006.
He denies the charges and all allegations of non-consensual sex. The trial is expected to last six weeks once jury selection is completed.
About 700 candidates were screened over the course before the select group were picked – with a three alternate jurors chosen to sit in a replace any permanent members unable to make it to deliberation.
As the trial is set to begin on Wednesday, Judge James Burke told potential jurors yesterday that the events were ‘not a referendum on the #MeToo movement’, adding they were expected to decide the fate of the fallen Hollywood mogul purely ‘on the evidence’ presented.
The trial is expected to conclude in early March.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Weinstein lawyer Damon Cheronis asked a panel of 20 potential jurors on Thursday the following questions: ‘Does anybody on this jury think that it’s possible that an individual can say they were sexually assaulted when they really weren’t? Does anybody think it’s possible that someone can have sex with someone they may not find attractive for reasons other than love? Does anybody think that a person who had consensual sex can change their story years later to turn someone into a pariah and say what was once consensual and then say it’ something different?’
On Thursday Gigi Hadid was dismissed as a potential juror, after telling the judge she believed she was able to remain impartial, despite meeting Salma Hayek, who may be called as a witness. She was excused 15 minutes after arriving to Manhattan Supreme Court.
On Monday Gigi, 24, was part of a pool of potential jurors and was asked by Justice James Burke to return to court on Thursday to answer further questions.
She’d earlier informed the court that she had also met Weinstein, however insisted ‘I think I’m still able to keep an open mind on the facts’.
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