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Jury of 7 Men, 5 Women Selected for Weinstein's Rape Trial

Associated Press

   NEW YORK - A jury of seven men and five women was selected Friday for
   Harvey Weinstein's rape trial after an arduous, two-week process in
   which scores of people were dismissed because they had already made up
   their minds about the disgraced Hollywood mogul.

   Opening statements are expected Wednesday in the case against the
   67-year-old executive who has come tobe seen asthe arch villain of the
   #MeToo era.

   The once powerful and feared studio boss behind such Oscar winners as
   Pulp Fictionand Shakespeare in Loveis charged with raping a woman in a
   New York City hotel room in 2013 and forcibly performing a sex act on
   another at his apartment in 2006. He has said any sexual activity was
   consensual. If convicted, he could get life in prison.

   During jury selection, prosecutors accused Weinstein's lawyers of
   systematically trying to keep young women off the panel, though the
   final gender makeup of the jury turned out to be more closely balanced.

   Mistrial sought

   For its part, the defense raised an outcry and demanded a mistrial
   because one of the jurors is the author of an upcoming novel involving
   young women dealing with predatory older men. The request was denied,
   but Weinstein's lawyers continued to claim outside court that the juror
   had withheld the information on her questionnaire.

   ``We got the best jury we could get under thecircumstances,`` defense
   attorney Donna Rotunno told reporters. ``I'm obviously not happy with
   what happened in the end there. I think that was an absolutely
   ridiculousdecision.``

   The defense said it wasn't specifically trying to exclude young women
   but didn't want jurors too young to understand the way men and women
   interacted in the early 1990s.

   ``That was a different time in New York and on planet Earth,'' said
   another Weinstein attorney, Arthur Aidala,

   A stooped Weinstein, shuffling out of the courthouse with the use of a
   walker because of recent back surgery, had no comment when asked for
   his thoughts on jury selection. ``Ask Donna!'' he said, referring to
   Rotunno.

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