Jury selection in the Danny Masterson retrial: Today, the attorneys take over

{Defense attorney Shawn Holley and Deputy DA Reinhold Mueller]

It’s Day 4 at the Danny Masterson retrial in Los Angeles, and Judge Charlaine Olmedo has indicated that she’s hoping she can get a jury seated by the end of the day so we can take tomorrow off.

Yesterday, she pushed through the herculean feat of speaking individually to more than 200 prospective jurors in a session that lasted from 9 in the morning until after 4:30 pm. We did our best to provide notes on all of those conversations, with some exceptions.

Today, the attorneys take over as the process of voir dire continues and the prospective jurors are quizzed further about their knowledge of Scientology or their knowledge of this case in order to find 12 jurors and 8 alternates.

We’ve seen some really interesting responses to yesterday’s reports from readers. We agree that the number of jurors who had at least some knowledge of Scientology seems higher than last time, and of course a few had some fun things to say about it, based on what they’d seen on Leah Remini’s program or others.

But we also note how many referred to the celebrities, which shows you just how much this pays off for Scientology. Even though the actual number of celebrities in Scientology is fewer than people seem to think, it’s a notion that seems to be the number one thing the public has actually heard about it.

We also wanted to note that Masterson yet again was without a friend or family member with him. During jury selection, when seating is limited, he’s allowed to bring along one other person, and for the first trial he would bring one of his brothers or a friend. Then, when opening statements and testimony began, he had a much larger group with him.

This time, he’s arriving with only his legal team — attorneys Philip Cohen and Shawn Holley, a paralegal, and a jury consultant. On the prosecution side, Deputy DAs Reinhold Mueller and Ariel Anson also have a jury consultant sitting in.

This is the big day for those jury consultants. They’ve been working long hours to pore through the questionnaires submitted by the prospective jurors and the responses elicited by Judge Olmedo, and now they will be helping their attorneys figure out which jurors are more desirable for their side.

But what are they looking for? We’d love to hear from our legal experts in the comments section at the dot org site: Who’s the ideal juror for the defense? For the prosecution? And how will knowledge of Scientology come into play? Let us know what you think.

As usual, keep an eye on your inboxes as our reports from the courtroom will arrive at the breaks. We anticipate another full day, with four detailed dispatches and a video coming your way.

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