One of the dozens of potential jurors who have been dismissed from El Chapo’s trial was rejected because they wanted the notorious criminal’s autograph.
The potential juror is a Colombian man who has spent the last 20 years living in the United States.
He was born in Medellin, the home of Pablo Escobar, the only other drug dealer in the world who is as prolific as El Chapo, but insisted he could be impartial during his court interview.
On Tuesday however, he was rejected after asking a court security officer if they could help him get El Chapo’s autograph.
When questioned about it on Tuesday, he confessed to the courtroom: ‘I’m a bit of a fan.’
The remark prompted a smile from the 59-year-old Mexican defendant. His lawyers tried to keep him on but the judge dismissed him.
U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan was also forced to dismiss 17 people including five who said they would be scared for their safety if they were selected.
Among them was a young woman who was heard crying ‘profusely’ in the hall, saying that her mother had told her they would have to get a new house.
When the judge read out her remarks, El Chapo laughed.
El Chapo, whose real name is Joaquin Guzman, is pictured being brought to the US in 2017. A jury is yet to be selected for his long awaited drugs trial
Two of El Chapo’s attorneys are pictured arriving at court on Monday. They have asked the judge to reduce the security surrounding the high profile trial because they say it makes El Chapo seem more violent than he is
‘She’s worried the pressure on her mother will be injurious to her health,’ judge said of the woman.
Another of the potential jurors had to be taken to hospital after suffering a panic attack.
Another man was rejected because he said he often ordered an ‘El Chapo’ sandwich at a local deli and that it could make him identifiable and a Michael Jackson impersonator was also turned down.
All of the jurors wore numbers.
It will be how the jurors, once they are eventually selected, are identified throughout the high profile drug trial.
Once selected, the 12 jurors will also be escorted to and from the courthouse every day by US Marshals.
El Chapo, whose real name is Joaquin Guzman, spent the night in a cell in the courthouse after being ferried over from the Manhattan Correctional Center in a convoy which temporarily closed the Brooklyn Bridge.
The courthouse was surrounded by high level security on Tuesday as the selection continued.
According to CBS, the potential jurors told the judge on Monday that they were scared their families would be in danger if they were put on the jury.
‘What scares me is that…[Guzman’s] family will come after jurors and their family,’ one said.
Armed police stand outside the United States District Court on Monday on the first day of selection
Two of El Chapo’s legal team wheel documents into the courthouse on Monday
Another told the judge they were ‘nervous’.
Others were dismissed for having watched the Netflix series Narcos which details the life of Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar, the only more prolific drugs syndicate leader than El Chapo in history.
Some were dismissed because they said they had heard about the Netflix documentary which is believed to have led to El Chapo’s capture.
It included his sit-down interview with the actor Sean Penn.
Police shut down one side of the Brooklyn Bridge on Monday to transport the high profile inmate safely
This was the route the convoy took on Monday with a heavily armed convoy
El Chapo’s lawyers are eager to dispel the idea that he is a violent criminal and say all the added security around the courthouse and trial do nothing to help his reputation.
‘He’s a mythical figure at this point.
El Chapo’s 24-year-old wife Emma was not present. She attended other hearings in April this year (pictured)
‘And if you read the books, the many books that have been written about him, even by the agents in the case, they even discuss it – they don’t know what was real and what wasn’t real,’ his lawyer Jeffrey Lichtman said on Monday.
The judge has ruled that the jury may be sequestered for some of the trial.
It is expected to take as long as four months.
It remains unclear if El Chapo, who famously escaped from Mexican prisons twice before being arrested and turned over to the US in January 2017, will sleep in the federal courthouse for the duration of the trial or if he will go between it and the high security prison where he has been for the last year.
If convicted, he will spend the rest of his life in American prison.
Guzman is charged with 17 counts of drug trafficking and running a criminal enterprise known as the Sinaloa cartel, one of Mexico’s most violent and dangerous organized crime syndicates.