Twelve jurors were sworn into service at Harvey Weinstein’s sexual assault trial on Friday, capping a process that saw two sets of lawyers and a judge screen more than 600 New Yorkers to arrive at a jury comprised of seven men, five women, and three alternates. At times over the last two weeks, Judge James Burke has described the selection as “laborious,” “time-consuming,” and “prospective-juror-devouring.” It had been, in other words, a vigorous hunt for what I assume are the last 15 people on the planet who have not yet made up their minds about Harvey Weinstein.
On the first day of voir dire, Thursday, Weinstein arrived at Burke’s courtroom in Manhattan with four defense attorneys, who sat opposite two prosecutors. Twenty people ascended the jury box to be questioned by both sets of lawyers while 120 would-be jurors looked on. Weinstein also watched, and at one point seemed to nod off. (To be fair, defense attorney Damon Cheronis had just asked, “Does anybody watch Law & Order?”) Jury selection for this trial has sometimes been surreal, like when supermodel Gigi Hadid reported for jury duty and wound up at Weinstein’s trial on Monday . (She was dismissed Thursday.) And it has been personal. Some women discussed their own experiences with sexual violence. At one screening session, when Burke announced Weinstein’s name, a woman exclaimed “Oh, shit!”
Jury selection also introduced a new member to Weinstein’s legal entourage: jury consultant Renato Stabile, a lawyer who works at Dubin Research & Consulting. The New York–based firm assisted with the 2012 defense of Rutgers student Dharun Ravi, who pleaded guilty to attempted invasion of privacy, and the 2005 defense of Murder Inc. Records founders Chris and Irv “Gotti” Lorenzo, whom a federal jury acquitted of money-laundering charges. Weinstein already had six lawyers from three law firms in two time zones when Stabile arrived. The former mogul’s lawyers were already swamping Assistant District Attorneys Joan Illuzzi-Orbon and Meghan Hast, with paperwork. (“If I could make them stop, I would,” Burke said to Illuzzi-Orbon when the prosecutors fell behind schedule in replies to defense motions.) They are a two-woman team, and the District Attorney of New York does not hire jury consultants, a department spokesperson said.
Jury consultants can provide an advantage during a labor-intense selection process like Weinstein’s, which require lawyers to review questionnaires from hundreds of jurors. In the internet age, they also cyber sleuth. “I can type in your name right now and get a whole full report on you within 20 seconds,” Blueprint Trial Consulting partner Eric Rudich said during a phone interview. “For all prospective jurors, we have everything: where they live, their home value, political affiliation, sometimes things they’ve bought.” Weinstein’s team has called foul on the alleged social media posts of several would-be jurors, including a writer who apparently tweeted about using his jury seat to promote his novel. The juror claimed the tweet, which has since been deleted, was intended to be humorous. On Thursday, Judge James Burke dismissed the juror—and threatened a contempt-of-court charge.
When I told another jury consultant, Jo-Ellan Dimitrius, about Weinstein’s new hire, she burst into laughter. Not because of Stabile’s rep—just Weinstein’s timing. “It’s certainly my experience on any high-profile case [that] we are retained by the client well before a trial,” said Dimitrius, who worked on the criminal trial that acquitted O.J. Simpson of murder and a civil case that ended in an eight-figure award to Francis Ford Coppola. Really rich clients who really want to win hire jury consultants to run mock trials, focus-test witnesses, and survey public opinions long before selection begins. (Rudich also brought this up. Then again, advising people to seek consultation is sort of part of a consultant’s job, isn’t it?) Hiring a jury consultant is still an advantage, she acknowledged. But the prosecution also has advantages, like, she said, “Mr. Weinstein being, let’s call him, an unattractive defendant?”