BROOKLYN, N.Y. (CN) - With opening statements still a week a way, attorneys ironed out a jury Wednesday for the New York trial of Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
A two-time escapee from high-security Mexican prisons, Guzman was convicted on drug charges in Mexico in the 1990s and arraigned last year in Brooklyn on a 17-count superseding indictment. Of the seven women and five men selected for the jury, 11 said they had heard of the defendant.
Four speak a range of Spanish, including one native speaker; others immigrated from Poland, Ethiopia and South Asia; and several have ties to law enforcement, including one juror who is a retired Department of Corrections officer. The jury will not have to stay in a hotel for the trial, which is expected to last between two and four months, but U.S. marshals will ferry them every day between their homes and the courthouse.
In contrast to the prison garb he wore at past hearings, Guzman donned sharp suits in navy and black for jury selection, where he sat alert and expressive at the defense table.
The jury was fielded from a pool of 74 after the court sent 1,000 questionnaires this summer to residents of Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and Long Island, the four communities that make up New York’s Eastern District.
With this group, the parties acted swiftly to excuse anyone who expressed fear for their safety, including one woman who broke down in tears in the hallway, saying her mother was terrified that her daughter might serve on El Chapo’s jury.
U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan allowed only a group of five reporters to attend this week’s proceedings, which were otherwise closed to the public.
None of the selected jurors said they were scared of Guzman, but Cogan noted that one cried after she was selected, privately telling him she was worried people would find her out.
One man found himself excused from the jury meanwhile after asking a court security officer to get him Guzman’s autograph. A woman who read aloud in the jury room from a newspaper article about the case was also struck — for failing to follow instructions not to read about the case — as was a self-described official Michael Jackson impersonator and a man who said he loves the “El Chapo” sandwich at his local deli — lox, capers and cream cheese on a bagel.
No juror was excused just on the basis of their familiarity with the Netflix series “El Chapo” or “Narcos,” the popular drama whose fourth season is set to explore Guzman’s roots in Mexico.
Lawyers for the 61-year-old asked Judge Cogan in a letter Tuesday if Guzman can greet his wife with a hug before opening arguments kick off on Nov. 13.
Ioan Grillo, a British journalist based in Mexico City who has covered Latin America for the better part of two decades, called it unusual that Guzman has chosen to fight the charges rather than flip.
“The majority of drug traffickers make a deal,” said Grillo, who is the author of “El Narco: Inside Mexico's Criminal Insurgency” and “Gangster Warlords: Drug Dollars, Killing Fields and the New Politics of Latin America.”
But Guzman, by defying this tradition, is forcing U.S. prosecutors to lay out their cards.