CHICAGO — Attorneys for a Chicago-area man accused of selling women into sexual slavery reportedly are trying to get his trial postponed because they don't believe he will be judged fairly by a jury during the #MeToo movement.
According to Raw Story, citing the Chicago Tribune, lawyers for Benjamin Biancofiori, a man accused of issuing "death threats, vicious beatings and other abuse to force women into sexual servitude," submitted a motion to the U.S. attorney's office last week that associated the defendant to Harvey Weinstein when asking for a delay in his trial.
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“In view of the extraordinary attention to and enflamed (sic) societal passion on the subject of male sexual misconduct, Mr. Biancofiori cannot hope to select a jury that is untainted by the veritable flood of reporting on the subject,” wrote Biancofiori’s lawyer, Andrea Gambino, according to the news outlet.
According to the news outlet, the motion argued that Gambino would need to create a questionnaire to eliminate the jurors who have participated in the #MeToo movement or have had "their own individual experiences with male sexual misconduct."
According to the news outlet, Biancofiori's lawyers are also trying to withhold from the evidence pool "a 124-page handwritten manifesto on pimping" that their client allegedly wrote.