Judge Rejects Ex-Senate Leader’s Quest to Move Trial

The retrial of a former top New York lawmaker will not be moved elsewhere, despite claims that the indictment is fatally flawed and that pretrial publicity makes finding fair jurors impossible.

U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood said Monday that the trial of former Republican Senate leader Dean Skelos and his son is set to begin in Manhattan next Tuesday.

She rejected an attempt by lawyers to dismiss the indictment on the grounds that the grand jury was improperly instructed in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling two years ago that narrowed the legal boundaries of what constituted corruption.

The judge noted that jurors are drawn from one of the most diverse parts of the country.

“They do not show that New Yorkers have been barraged daily or weekly with news about this trial,” she said.