Smith Lawyers Seek Trial Delay, Change of Venue

William Kennedy Smith’s attorneys Friday asked a state judge to relocate or delay his August rape trial for months because of sensational publicity and “complete insensitivity” by the prosecution.

The defense filed a 68-page motion asking Palm Beach Circuit Judge Mary Lupo for at least a 90-day delay of the trial, which is scheduled to start Aug. 5.

“This motion, as well as the defendant’s motion for a change of venue filed simultaneously with this motion, details some but not all of the outrageous, sensationalized coverage of this case,” said the motion for a continuance signed by defense attorney Roy Black.

The document did not include the text of the venue motion or give any details about it.

Smith, a 30-year-old medical school graduate and the nephew of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), has denied accusations by a 29-year-old Jupiter, Fla., woman that he raped her on March 30.

The motion said the defense team needed time to investigate allegations made public by the prosecution this week that Smith had raped before.

Black called the prosecution’s release of three women’s accounts of past sexual attacks by Smith “a sensational outburst of highly prejudicial publicity that virtually destroyed William Kennedy Smith’s ability to receive a fair trial.”

Noting that the extraordinary new allegations were made less than two weeks before the scheduled start of the trial, Black wrote, “The defense cannot even complete the depositions of the witnesses already provided, let alone the (new) witnesses.”