MANHATTAN FEDERAL COURT — A federal judge on Thursday excused a potential juror in the upcoming trial of the accused Chelsea bomber after she said she might not be impartial because she’d witnessed the Twin Towers fall.
“I worked at the World Financial Center in 2001 — I actually was on my way to work when the plane hit. I actually watched the towers fall,” the woman told Judge Richard Berman Thursday during jury selection for the trial of Ahmad Khan Rahimi, who is accused of planting two bombs in Chelsea last year.
The woman, who noted that her work focuses on nonprofits, fundraising and marketing, told the judge she had colleagues who lost their lives that day.
“I feel really emotional about that still,” she said shortly before Berman excused her from the selection process. “I don’t know if I can be completely impartial.”
Another potential juror, who works for a medical group in Westchester, said she’d worked at 2 World Trade Center before 9/11, but didn’t feel it would keep her from being unbiased.
“I too was bothered a little... that event affected me… [but] I’m hoping that I would be fair,” she said.
Throughout the proceedings, Rahimi himself sat at a table next to his attorneys, turning a few times to observe potential jurors and exchanging an occasional word with his lawyers.
One of the potential jurors Rahimi's lawyer requested be removed was a self-described homemaker and freelance artist who said during jury selection Wednesday she had “strong feelings” about ISIS. Another was a city Department of Education social worker who said she'd worked with a student connected to Selis Manor — a home for the blind on the street where one of the bombs went off — who had been affected by the bombing.
The attorneys also asked the judge to consider removing a potential juror who’d once worked as a press officer for the Department of Justice and made a joke about having “just one wife” when asked about his family members, leading Rahimi’s counsel to believe it could have been an anti-Muslim comment.
Berman said he didn't feel the man's joke was meant to be "disparaging" in any way, but excused him anyway based on his past work for the Department of Justice.
Rahimi’s attorney also brought up two potential jurors they felt required further inquiry on the judge’s part — the woman who’d worked at 2 World Trade Center prior to 9/11 and a man from The Bronx who told the judge he studied the Bible and “share[d] Jesus with the people” in his free time.
Berman, however, said he felt the woman was a “perfectly fine juror.”
He also refused to consider excusing the Bronx man.
“I think it would be a grievous mistake for us to delve into people who are religious, who have not said anything about anyone else’s religion,” he said.
Of the potential jurors who weren’t excused, 16 were selected to hear Rahimi's case on Monday — 12 of whom will be jurors and four of whom will be alternates.
