After a full day of questioning dozens of potential candidates in a federal courtroom in Lower Manhattan on Wednesday, lawyers still had not selected the 12-member jury for the insider trading trial of Mathew Martoma, a former hedge fund manager at SAC Capital Advisors.
By the end of the day, Judge Paul G. Gardephe of Federal District Court raised concerns that he might have to bring in a fresh group of candidates on Thursday, postponing opening statements by another day. Jury selection began on Tuesday.
The judge also issued a ruling that would affect the trial. Judge Gardephe said lawyers for Mr. Martoma could not introduce as evidence excerpts from a May 2012 deposition by Steven A. Cohen, the billionaire founder of SAC Capital. In the deposition, Mr. Cohen told Securities and Exchange Commission investigators that he had sold shares of Wyeth after discussing the company with another analyst at SAC Capital. Mr. Martoma’s lawyers said that the testimony would help clear him.
Mr. Martoma’s trial is the latest in a decade-long investigation by the Justice Department into insider trading at SAC Capital. Just one month ago, in the same Manhattan courthouse, Michael S. Steinberg, the highest-ranking employee at SAC Capital to stand trial, was found guilty of insider trading. Six former traders have also pleaded guilty to insider trading while at the fund.
In November, SAC Capital agreed to pay $1.2 billion and plead guilty to five counts of insider trading violations. As part of this agreement, Mr. Cohen said he would manage only his own pool of money, worth around $9 billion. The rest of SAC’s $15 billion fund is being returned to investors.
Mr. Martoma has been accused of obtaining confidential information from two doctors involved in clinical trials for a drug for Alzheimer’s disease and making trades in the drug companies Wyeth and Elan based on information that a clinical trial had failed to meet its goals. The trades helped SAC Capital to avoid losses and generate profit of $276 million.
Dressed in a black suit and a maroon tie, Mr. Martoma, 39, sat directly in front of his wife, Rosemary, who wore a matching maroon turtleneck and took notes during the day.
The jury selection began at 9:30 a.m. as 54 candidates filed into the courtroom. Soon after, Judge Gardephe began excusing candidates based on their answers to his questions about whether they had any conflicts of interests or biases toward Wall Street or the financial world.
One of the eight potential jurors excused before lunch was a lawyer who said she had concerns about her ability to be impartial. Another was a man who said he questioned the value of insider trading laws on economic grounds.
By the afternoon, potential jurors were excused for more mundane reasons, like being unable to take three and a half weeks off from work for the trial.
The group of remaining candidates included the chief executive of a footwear and accessory company who wore four-inch boots, a film professor at New York University who spent much of the day chewing on an unlit cigar and an employee at the accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.
