[Source: AP]

As jury selection began Tuesday in Harvey Weinstein’s New York City rape retrial, some prospective jurors made clear they couldn’t be fair in judging the one-time Hollywood mogul-turned-#MeToo pariah.

Mark Axelowitz, an actor who plays a Manhattan prosecutor in the new Robert De Niro film “The Alto Knights,” was one of more than a dozen candidates who raised a hand when the judge asked if anyone felt they couldn’t be impartial.

“I don’t like the guy, he is a really bad guy,” Axelowitz told a reporter after being dismissed from consideration.

Another dismissed prospective juror disqualified herself because she had previously been sexually assaulted. Yet another wondered whether anyone could be impartial.

The first day ended with no one chosen for the panel of 12 jurors and six alternates. Jury selection will resume Wednesday.

Weinstein is being tried again after New York’s highest court last year overturned his 2020 conviction and 23-year prison sentence and ordered a new trial, finding that improper rulings and prejudicial testimony tainted the original one.

That Court of Appeals ruling gave Weinstein a second chance to fight the charges, with his retrial playing out in a different atmosphere than the first, which was held amid a global reckoning over sexual misconduct.

Weinstein, 73, has pleaded not guilty and denies he raped or sexually assaulted anyone. He is older and more frail, in and out of the hospital regularly for a variety of health problems and far removed from his time among the most powerful men in show business.

Weinstein’s lawyer, Arthur Aidala, said the ex-studio boss is “cautiously optimistic that when all the evidence is out, the jury will find that all of his relationships were consensual and therefore reach a verdict of not guilty.”

Even if he is acquitted, Weinstein won’t go free.

Weinstein is also appealing a 2022 rape conviction in Los Angeles. His 16-year prison sentence in that case still stands, though his lawyers said he needs to be resentenced because the since-vacated New York conviction factored into how his punishment was calculated.

Stream the best of Fiji on VITI+. Anytime. Anywhere.