Jury selection began for the retrial of the rape case against disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein at Manhattan criminal court on Tuesday. 

“I don’t like the guy, he is a really bad guy,” the actor Mark Axelowitz said to a journalist after he was dismissed from the jury pool, the Associated Press reported.  

Mr. Axelowitz, who stars as a prosecutor in Robert DeNiro’s new film “The Alto Knights” and also played a small role in the TV show “Boardwalk Empire,” raised his hand when the presiding judge, Curtis Farber, asked the prospective jurors if they had any issues with being impartial.  A few more voiced their sentiments to the judge, one said, “I don’t see how anyone can be impartial.”  

To help with jury selection, Mr. Weinstein has hired the renowned jury consultant Jo-Ellan Dimitrius. As the Sun reported, Ms. Dimitrius recently worked on the trial against the Marine Daniel Penny, who was charged with killing a homeless Michael Jackson impersonator, Jordan Neely, after putting him in a chokehold on a New York subway. The jury acquitted Mr. Penny of the charges. However, Ms. Dimitrius greatest claim to fame is helping pick the jury that acquitted OJ Simpson. 

The 73-year-old film producer, Mr. Weinstein, who produced legendary movies such as “Pulp Fiction” and “Shakespeare in Love,” for which he won a Best Picture Academy Award, sat at the defense table in a wheelchair. He has pleaded not guilty again and denies sexually assaulting anyone.

While the former entertainment mogul has been incarcerated on Rikers Island, one of New York’s most notorious jails, he has been undergoing treatment for bone marrow cancer. He also had an emergency heart surgery in 2024, suffers from diabetes, and was recently hospitalized at Bellevue for a dangerously swollen tongue. 

The rape and sexual harassment allegations against Mr. Weinstein, which began to surface in 2017, sparked the  #MeToo movement, a campaign that encouraged women to speak up against sexual abuse in the work place, especially in the media business, where powerful men had long preyed on women eager  further their careers.    

More than 80 women eventually accused Mr. Weinstein of harassment, sexual assault or rape, including prominent actors Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow and Ashley Judd. 

To this day, Mr. Weinstein has denied all charges and allegations, and insists that all sexual acts were consentual.  

In 2020 a New York jury convicted Mr. Weinstein of first-degree criminal sexual act and of a third-degree rape charge and the judge sentenced him to 23 years in prison. He was accused of raping aspiring actress Jessica Mann in 2013 and forcibly performing an oral sex on TV and film production assistant, Miriam Haley, in 2006.

But last year, New York’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, overturned that conviction in a 4-3 ruling, finding that “the trial court erroneously admitted testimony of uncharged, alleged prior sexual acts” after allowing testimony against Mr. Weinstein based on allegations from other women that were not part of the case, including “Sopranos” star Annabella Sciorra. The guilty verdict was vacated and a new trial was ordered.

The film mogul remained incarcerated because he was also serving time for another conviction in California, where he was found guilty for rape, oral copulation and other sexual misconduct charges, and sentenced to 16 years in prison. His attorneys have appealed that verdict as well, and have argued that the sentence needs to be adjusted because the vacated New York conviction was factored into Mr. Weinstein’s punishment by the California judge.  

The retrial in New York will include one new allegation by an unnamed woman who says Mr. Weinstein forced her to perform oral sex on him in a New York hotel in 2006. 

The retrial is expected to last six weeks. Judge Faber said on Tuesday that he intends jury selection to be completed within the next three days, and plans for opening statements to begin next week.