Playground drama threatens to derail Harvey Weinsteins NY sex crimes retrial as juror begs out

“Playground” drama threatened to tank Harvey Weinstein’s sex crimes retrial on Friday — when one juror asked to quit after claiming childish antics had made deliberations “unfair and unjust.”Juror No.7, described as a 25-year-old “computer kid,” told the judge he’d heard other members of the panel gossiping about one of their own in an elevator at Manhattan Supreme Court after deliberations Thursday.“The experience I’ve had in the day-and-a-half here, in good conscience, I don’t think this is fair and just,” the juror told the court Friday morning when he was brought to the witness box to explain why he wanted to be dismissed.He described the chaotic scene behind closed doors as “playground stuff,” with some on the panel of seven women and five men ignoring fellow jurors as they weighed the charges against Weinstein.“There’s a bit of shunning happening,” the young man said — before pleading for Judge Curtis Farber to dismiss him from the case.Farber told the juror that there was no backing out, reminding him he “took an oath” of service and that the trial would “fall apart” if he left now.One of the 12 jurors was excused on Thursday after complaining of illness, and replaced with an alternate.

The remaining three alternate panelists were then dismissed, meaning there would be no one to step in for Juror 7 if he was let off.Weinstein, 73, sat in his wheelchair and stared ahead without any visible reaction during the judge’s questioning of the juror.When the court reconvened after the lunch break, Weinstein’s attorney, Arthur Aidala, asked for a mistrial claiming that the judge should have questioned the juror further and asked more in-depth queries to get to the bottom of the elevator beef and the drama inside the jury room.“He looked at me right in the eyes and said, ‘What’s going on in there is not fair and unjust!'” the attorney said theatrically, launching into a 10-minute monologue as the judge quietly ...