Martin Shkreli, a.k.a. “pharma bro,” definitely lived up to his reputation as the “most hated man in America” on the first day of his fraud trial. More than 120 prospective jurors were dismissed Monday, with some calling him “evil” and a “snake.”

Unsurprisingly, many of the jurors were quickly disqualified for criticizing Shkreli’s price gouging of AIDS drugs, even though the trial actually has nothing to do with him increasing the price of Daraprim overnight by more than 5,000 percent.

“I think he’s a very evil man,” said one young woman as she was questioned by Judge Kiyo A. Matsumoto.

One woman even mimicked strangling Shkreli as she referenced him raising the price of “the AIDS drug,” according to the New York Times.

“Who does that?” she said. “A person that puts profit over everything else?”

“I looked right at him, and in my head, I said, ‘That’s a snake’–not knowing who he was,” said another woman upon seeing Shkreli in the courtroom. To which Shkreli’s lawyer, Benjamin Brafman replied, “So much for the presumption of innocence.”

A male prospective juror said, “I have total disdain for the man.”

Another man told the judge, “This is the price gouger of drugs.” He added: “My kids are on some of these drugs. This impacts my kids.”

A third man said, “He kind of looks like a d*ck.”

The 34-year-old baby-faced former pharmaceutical exec is on trial in the Federal District Court in Brooklyn for allegedly running an elaborate Ponzi-like scheme at his former hedge fund and a drug company he once headed up.

Prosecutors have accused Shkreli of lying to investors at the hedge fund MSMB Capital Management and siphoning off more than $11 million in assets from his biopharmaceutical company Retrophin to repay them between 2009 and 2014.

In total, Shkreli faces eight counts of securities and wire fraud and a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. He has pleaded not guilty.

Since first drawing widespread criticism in 2015, Shkreli has appeared to relish in making the world hate him. He spent $2 million on a rare Wu-Tang Clan album, and then subsequently threatened to destroy it. He harassed journalist Lauren Duca until he was banned from Twitter. He even auctioned off the chance to punch him in the face for charity–although one lucky protester managed to pelt him in the face with dog poop for free.

On Wednesday, the judge denied requests to start the selection process over and ban reporters from listening in on sidebars after the defense accused news coverage of tainting the New York jury pool.

She did, however, agree to re-question about 40 people who qualified for the pool to see if they were influenced by the latest wave of publicity for Shkreli. Judge Matsumoto also requested another pool of 60 to 100 potential jurors to be brought to the courtroom on Tuesday, but there’s no guarantee they’ll hate him any less than the first batch.

The trial is expected to last six weeks, but it’s already shaping up to be a rough ride for Shkreli.

Alexis Evans

Alexis Evans is an Assistant Editor at Law Street and a Buckeye State native. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and a minor in Business from Ohio University. Contact Alexis at aevans@LawStreetMedia.com.

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Journalist Lauren Duca appeared in an interview with Tucker Carlson on Fox News on Friday, discussing the harassment of Ivanka Trump on an airplane, and the conversation soon turned into a heated debate. Carlson had brought Duca on to question her about one of her tweets that seemed to defend the man who shouted at Ivanka Trump. But when asked, Duca explained that she did not defend the action, she just thought that Trump’s children should not be exempt from scrutiny just because they are young, beautiful and, in the case of Ivanka, looks like she “smells good.”

Ivanka Trump is poised to become the most powerful woman in the world. Don’t let her off the hook because she looks like she smells good.

— Lauren Duca (@laurenduca) December 23, 2016

But Carlson seemed to not accept Duca’s assurance that they did have the same opinion about the specific incident. Instead, he kept repeating his stance that Duca approved of shouting at people on airplanes, interrupted her, and talked over her. Finally he said, “stick to the thigh-high boots. You’re better at that,” and ended the segment while Duca was still talking. That last bit was a reference to Duca’s job at Teen Vogue. After the interview aired, many people hailed her as a hero and feminist role model for standing up to the male news anchor. But soon, the online threats started pouring in. Men hiding behind their computer screens started sending her emails and tweets with rape threats.

Messages like this — positioning sexual assault as a means of keeping women in line — make me want to fight even harder. pic.twitter.com/gtvMGQ9cpx

— Lauren Duca (@laurenduca) December 27, 2016

The threats peaked on Christmas Day. Duca said it was especially discouraging that many people, and even websites, claimed that she had defended the man harassing Ivanka, when she had explicitly said the opposite. She said she tried to discuss it with one of them, but he only answered “get raped” and was clearly not interested in a conversation. But she received a whole lot of support, too, and her number of Twitter followers had doubled by Tuesday afternoon, to over 104,000.

OK, good night @GeorgeTakei and everyone else pic.twitter.com/CMKd2zCPNn

— Lauren Duca (@laurenduca) December 27, 2016

The rape threats are truly challenging my faith in humanity, but this makes it all feel worth it. Love trumps hate. pic.twitter.com/DiIZAcFNOQ

— Lauren Duca (@laurenduca) December 25, 2016

And she had a message for the people harassing others online:

Harassment is a theft of social capital via time & energy. It’s exhausting and wholly unethical. It will also never be enough to silence me.

— Lauren Duca (@laurenduca) December 28, 2016

Emma Von Zeipel

Emma Von Zeipel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. She is originally from one of the islands of Stockholm, Sweden. After working for Democratic Voice of Burma in Thailand, she ended up in New York City. She has a BA in journalism from Stockholm University and is passionate about human rights, good books, horses, and European chocolate. Contact Emma at EVonZeipel@LawStreetMedia.com.

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