Twelve jurors and six alternates were sworn into service Wednesday for the federal corruption trial of ex-DEA agent Joseph Bongiovanni.
Jury selection started Monday with 160 prospective jurors and concluded early Wednesday afternoon with a judge's firm warning to those who were selected not to talk to others about the high-profile case.
U.S. District Judge Lawrence Vilardo told them not to even reveal the name of the case.
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"People are going to be pestering you over the dinner table Sunday," Vilardo told them. "Don't talk about it."
Opening statements and the first day of trial testimony will begin Monday.
Unlike at the first trial, defense attorneys retained a jury consulting firm to help review questionnaires from the prospective jurors and offer advice on which ones to reject through peremptory challenges.
"It gave us a little more insight," said defense attorney Parker MacKay.
Bongiovanni's lawyers retained the jury consultant who was on the defense team for Harvey Weinstein’s sexual assault trial in 2020 in New York.
Bongiovanni, 60, faces 11 charges, including a bribery count alleging that he accepted at least $250,000 from a drug-trafficking organization whom he thought was associated with Italian organized crime and shielded its members from arrest and provided them with information about investigations and cooperating sources.
- Patrick Lakamp
Patrick Lakamp can be reached at plakamp@buffnews.com
