The search for 12 jurors to decide the fate of former media baron Conrad Black accelerated on Thursday with an early court start aimed at getting the criminal fraud trial under way as planned next week.
The 62-year-old Black, dressed in a blue suit and saying little, strolled into the federal court house in downtown Chicago for the day's session which started 45 minutes earlier than Wednesday's opening round.
Judge Amy St. Eve of the US District Court heard some preliminary motions and then turned immediately again to the task of finding a jury to decide if Black and former associates skimmed millions of dollars from Chicago-based Hollinger International Inc.
The Canadian-born Black faces charges of fraud, racketeering, tax violations, obstruction of justice, and money laundering. His three former associates at Hollinger and its Canadian holding companies face fewer counts.
The judge, trying to identify any bias against people of wealth or corporate power, recited back to one potential juror on Thursday a response the prospective panelist had made to a written questionnaire asking their thoughts about people who made millions of dollars.
"That's a lot of money," the judge read from the potential juror's response. "I would want to know how they got it and I might not trust that. CEOs and CFOs are overpaid." But the potential juror, a woman, told the judge in response to a question at that point that she still felt she could be unbiased.
Together the defendants stand accused of stealing $84 million from the sales of newspapers and magazines that prosecutors say belonged to shareholders of Hollinger, once a world-wide media giant then under Black's control.