Judge Grants Delay of Smith Rape Trial : Justice: Lawyers say publicity over the case is making it impossible for the nephew of Sen. Kennedy to be tried fairly.

A Florida judge on Wednesday delayed the rape trial of William Kennedy Smith for at least 90 days after Smith’s lawyers argued that “pervasive and prejudicial” publicity was making it impossible to fairly try the nephew of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.).

Roy Black, attorney for Smith, argued that a delay was needed to cool the fever of news media coverage that he said was worsened by prosecutors and was quickly turning the public against Smith. “You are now at a danger point--where it might irreparably harm Mr. Smith’s right to a fair trial,” Black said.

He told Judge Mary Lupo that a delay was also necessary because he still had an enormous amount of evidence to gather and many witnesses to interview. The judge has not set a new date for the trial, which had been scheduled to begin Monday.

Smith, 30, is accused of raping a 29-year-old Jupiter, Fla., woman on March 30 at the Kennedy family’s oceanfront Palm Beach estate. He has denied the charge.

The defense called a public opinion polling expert, Dr. John B. McConahy, to testify that public opinion in Florida has been radically changed by the state’s disclosure last week that three other women claim to have been sexually assaulted by Smith.

McConahy, a Duke University professor, said his survey of Palm Beach County residents showed that 25% of respondents believed that Smith is guilty or probably guilty before the disclosures, and that 41% believed so afterward. Surveys in three other adjacent counties also showed large swings in public opinion.

Such a rapid shift in attitude “is just without precedent, as far as I’m concerned,” McConahy said. The first sample included the views of 210 adults, and the second, 186 adults, he said.

Black also cited the comment of Palm Beach Police Sgt. Craig Gunkel, who said in a sworn statement that he had felt compelled to appear in a segment on the news-entertainment show “A Current Affair” to prevent a riot.

Black quoted Gunkel as saying that the press pressure for information was so great last spring that “if we had not done that, there would have been a riot. I’m as certain of that as that I’m sitting here.”

Black also quoted Gunkel and Palm Beach’s police chief as saying the press presence around the Police Department almost brought work to a standstill and forced officers to lock the doors during work hours to keep reporters out. As soon as Operation Desert Storm ended, he joked, every reporter who was covering the Gulf War “came to Palm Beach, and they all brought their friends with them.”

He compared the coverage of the Smith case to the trial of Bruno Hauptmann, who was convicted and executed for the kidnaping and murder of the infant son of Charles A. Lindbergh. That trial over 50 years ago was so disrupted by reporters and photographers that it persuaded many states to exclude photography at judicial proceedings.

Left unresolved Wednesday were defense motions to bar TV cameras from the trial and to limit disclosure of further filings in the case. The defense asked the court either to completely close the record or begin giving attorneys 48 hours notice of filings to allow them an opportunity to object to the release of sensitive papers.

The hearing on the defense motion to increase secrecy of filings will resume Friday.