JURY OF HIS JEERS
134 jurors out in ‘Pharma Bro’ trial: They all hate him
Martin Shkreli is so hated that prosecutors couldn’t find one juror to sit on his trial for fraud yesterday. More than 100 were dismissed after calling the infamous drug price gouger a “snake” and worse.
Forget about “12 Angry Men” — prosecutors and defense lawyers went through 134 potential jurors Monday and couldn’t find a single one to sit in judgment of reviled drug-price gouger Martin Shkreli, with many calling him a “snake,” “evil” and a “dick.”
The “Pharma Bro” — infamous for hiking the price of an AIDS drug 5,000 percent when he ran Turing Pharmaceuticals — is on trial in an alleged $11 million Ponzi scheme.
“The defendant is the face of corporate greed in America,” one potential juror said during a sidebar, out of earshot of an oblivious-looking Shkreli, who spent the proceeding looking bored and sucking on his pen.
“You’d have to convince me he’s innocent,” the unnamed woman told the judge.
Over the course of eight hours, lawyers questioned the 178-person Brooklyn federal-court pool — tossing 134 for various prejudices and claims of hardship on Day 1 of what is expected to be a six-week trial. Forty-six will return Tuesday.
“I think he’s a very evil man,” seethed the first juror to be dismissed, after flouncing over to speak to the judge with her frog backpack in tow.
Another recalled making eye contact with Shkreli as she walked into the courtroom.
“In my head, I said, ‘That’s a snake,’ ” she told attorneys. She was promptly dismissed. Another prospective juror even mimed wringing Shkreli’s neck as she called him “a person who puts profit over everything else.”
Shkreli, 34, faces up to 20 years behind bars if convicted of securities-fraud charges. He is accused of lying to investors at his former hedge fund and siphoning millions of dollars from a biopharmaceutical firm he ran to repay them.
As Brooklyn federal Judge Kiyo Matsumoto asked each prospective juror why they had indicated they couldn’t serve as fair and impartial jurors — in sidebar, out of earshot of the other pool members — the fusillade of insults continued into the evening.
One young man, who mentioned Shkreli’s $2 million purchase of the only copy of the Wu-Tang Clan album “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin,” answered the judge, “Honestly? Because he kind of looks like a dick.” Shrugging, he added, “Sorry.” One potential juror was excused because his parents are on Daraprim — the potentially lifesaving drug for which Shkreli boosted the price 5,000 percent to line his pockets.
Several more jurors said they had lost friends to HIV or AIDS.
“I find him truly disgusting,” one woman said, on the brink of tears. “My uncle has AIDS, and I couldn’t be impartial.”
Others cited ill family members who were having trouble affording their medications — with one man calling Shkreli “the most hated man in America.”
The search for 12 jurors and six alternates continues Tuesday.