Smith Rape Case Judge Outlines Plans to Find Impartial Jurors

William Kennedy Smith’s trial judge outlined on Friday how she will try to seat a jury for his highly publicized rape case.

Circuit Judge Mary Lupo went over courtroom procedures with prosecutors and defense attorneys, discussing how to select an impartial six-person jury despite pretrial publicity caused by what she termed “the Kennedy family issue.”

Smith, 31, is a nephew of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.). The senator, listed as a trial witness, went with Smith to the Palm Beach nightspot where Smith met a woman on March 30. She has charged that Smith later raped her at the Kennedy family’s Palm Beach estate.

“We only hope that the American criminal justice system can give a person a fair trial no matter what family he’s related to,” Roy Black, Smith’s lead attorney, said after the hearing.

Jury selection begins Wednesday.

Lupo said she will talk to potential jurors individually about the length of the trial, which is set to begin Dec. 2 and last at least three weeks. She then will have both sides question individual jurors about pretrial publicity, the Kennedys and other issues.

During defense questioning, meanwhile, Anne Mercer, an important state witness, said she never doubted statements by the alleged victim that Smith had raped her. Mercer went to the estate after the woman had called her and stated that she had been raped.

Smith’s attorneys suggested that Mercer had told another friend that she didn’t believe the alleged victim’s account.

Mercer, 32, described finding the woman “in shock, hysterical, shook up, afraid” at the estate. She said the woman called her at home around 4:30 a.m. and said: “I have been raped . . . . Please come get me.”

Questioned about why she later appeared on “A Current Affair,” the tabloid television show, Mercer said she wanted to answer rumors--and also received $22,500.

“I wanted publicly to make a statement and let people be aware of who I am, that I am a nice person, that I am just a victim of circumstances and also, yes, to collect money,” she said.