Martin Shkreli‘s own criminal defense lawyer called the pharma bro’s “Twitter history … just horrific” during jury selection Tuesday for his trial on charges of securities fraud.
That blunt comment from high-powered Shkreli attorney Benjamin Brafman came as he argued that a potential juror who said he had seen “some of the defamation comments” Shkreli made on Twitter should keep the man off the jury.
“Unfortunately, the Twitter history is just horrific,” Brafman told Judge Kiyo Matsumoto in Brooklyn, New York, federal court, according to a pool press reporter listening in on the exchange.
“The Twitter is probably the most prejudicial part of Mr. Shrekli’s [case].”
Shkreli had a long history of caustic, insulting comments on Twitter before he was banned by the social media service this year after harassing a female journalist.
Brafman succeeded in booting the man, an employee of a media company, from the jury, despite the man saying he did not believe his knowledge of Shkreli’s Twitter feed would bias him if he served as a juror.
The second day of jury selection in the securities fraud trial ended without any jurors being seated.
However, Matsumoto did manage to start questioning a remaining pool of several dozen prospective jurors about whether they knew any potential witnesses in the case, or drug companies, financial firms or law firms that might be mentioned during the trial.
They also were asked if they had experience with law enforcement and the court system that could bias their views toward Shkreli, or whether they had seen any stories about comments made by other prospective jurors who had negative views of Shkreli.
One woman was excused after saying she had seen a headline referring to Shkreli as a “snake.”
Jury selection will resume Wednesday.
The witness list read aloud by Matsumoto included investors who had placed money with Shkreli. Also on that list were several members of Shkreli’s family, including his dad, who was in the courtroom Tuesday.
And potential jurors were asked if they had ever heard of Daraprim, the anti-parasite drug whose price Shkreli’s hiked by more than 5,000 percent in 2015, generating public outrage. None of the prospective jurors raised their hands.
Matsumoto had hoped to start the trial Monday with opening statements after picking a jury of 12, with six alternates. That didn’t happen, since it took much longer than she expected to winnow a pool of almost 180 potential jurors down to just 47 people.
Excused were those who had negative opinions of Shkreli that rendered them ineligible to serve, or who had family, work or medical issues that would make it difficult or impossible to be a juror in the case.
Mastumoto voiced a similar hope on Tuesday that the trial would start sometime during the day. But those hopes were again dashed by the slow pace of interviewing additional prospective jurors out of the earshot of Shkreli, 34, about their potential conflicts.
Prosecutors and defense lawyers have not yet been allowed to issue any of a set of challenges they may use, for just about any reason, to bar a prospective juror from sitting on the panel that ends up being used at trial.
By the end of Tuesday, there were just 47 people remaining in a pool of potential jurors. Fresh prospects will be interviewed Wednesday, and the judge now hopes to begin the trial Thursday.
Earlier in the day, Matsumoto rejected a request by Shkreli’s lawyer Brafman to declare a mistrial because of news stories about the negative opinions some prospective jurors had of former pharma CEO.
“I think it’s impossible for jurors not to see them,” Brafman said.
“I have someone who is facing 20 years in prison,” the lawyer noted, underscoring the risk that Shkreli faces from having a jury infected by what they might see of media coverage of the case.
Shkreli has pleaded not guilty to charges of securities fraud, and conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud which are related to claims that he ripped off his former drug company Retrophin for millions of dollars to repay investors defrauded at his hedge funds.
The charges are unrelated to either Shkreli’s other drug company, Turing Pharmaceuticals, or to the public outrage that erupted after Turing raise the price of the antiparasite drug Daraprim from $13.50 to $750 per pill in 2015.
“He just seems to care about himself,” said one male potential juror about Shkreli on Tuesday, according to a pool press reporter who was allowed to listen in on Matsumoto’s sidebar questioning, out of earshot of the defendant.
“What I’ve heard is how he increased the price of drugs,” the man said. He was excused from the panel.
One woman, who was kept as a potential juror, told Matsumoto she had never read anything about the case, and did not know who Shkreli was.
“Oh, very good,” the judge said.
Shkreli’s co-defendant Evan Greebel, who was a business lawyer for Retrophin, is scheduled to be tried separately later this year. Lawyers for Greebel, who also has pleaded not guilty, earlier this year called Shkreli a serial liar who is “guilty” of fraud.