A judge ruled Tuesday that prosecutor Joan Illuzi can continue working on the Etan Patz murder case.
Defense attorneys for Pedro Hernandez, the man accused of kidnapping and murdering Patz, were calling for Illuzi to be removed from the case.
They say Illuzi violated rules of conduct by making comments on the case during her unsuccessful run for Staten Island District Attorney last year.
The defense argues Illuzi's comments could bias a jury.
The trial ended last May with a hung jury.
Jury selection in the retrial gets underway next month.
The six-year-old boy disappeared while walking to a SoHo bus stop alone in 1979.
Hernandez confessed to killing Patz, but his attorneys claim he's mentally ill and hallucinated the murder.
The boy's body was never found.