Jury selection continues today in a New York federal courthouse where the stock-fraud trial of Westport’s Martha Stewart is underway.
The juror questioning was conducted in secret Tuesday as Stewart’s trial began in earnest. About three dozen filed into a judge’s chambers to answer questions, and more were expected today and the rest of the week.
About a dozen of the potential jurors interviewed Tuesday were given the green light by the judge to proceed to the next round of selection, a source close to the case told The Associated Press.
The judge hopes to have about 50 jurors in that next round, the source said. Lawyers will then be allowed to select which of those jurors to eliminate, narrowing the pool to 12 jurors and six alternates for trial, the source said.
The in-person questions were designed as follow-ups to questionnaires filled out by hundreds of potential jurors two weeks ago.
The judge barred reporters from the session but ordered a transcript of the first day’s questioning to be released later today.
Opening statements are expected next week in the trial of Stewart, who is accused of lying to investigators about why she sold nearly 4,000 shares of ImClone Systems Inc. stock Dec. 27, 2001.
