Intruder Chased From Kennedy Florida Estate : Rape trial: Defense lawyers say man carried a video camera. Experts believe incident could be cited in conviction appeal.

A man carrying a television camera broke into the Palm Beach estate where William Kennedy Smith’s defense team was working about 10 p.m. Monday and was chased by a defense consultant and a security guard before roaring off in a van, defense lawyers said Tuesday.

In the latest sign of how intense press attention has intruded on Smith’s rape trial, the cameraman broke into a bedroom where key defense documents were stored. A jury consultant for Smith happened to see him leaving the bedroom, defense attorney Roy E. Black said, and the chase ensued.

Palm Beach police later stopped a van fitting a general description of the vehicle, but the driver could not be conclusively identified and was released. Black said that a similar van had been seen several times near the Kennedy estate the same day.

He said that no documents or other items were missing. But a police investigation and a separate inquiry by the Kennedy family are continuing.

Black said that the episode is only “one of a series of interruptions. . . . Every day it becomes more difficult for Will Smith to get a fair trial.” It was also evidence, he said, that “some fairly obtrusive measures are not beyond the consideration of some people covering this case.”

Several legal experts said that the event could strengthen arguments Black may intend to make on appeal, should Smith be convicted, that unprecedented press attention has made it impossible for his client to be fairly tried.

Smith, who is the nephew of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), is accused of raping a Jupiter, Fla., woman at the family’s oceanfront estate last March 30. Jury selection began in the trial two weeks ago; opening arguments are scheduled for Dec. 2.

Florida Circuit Court Judge Mary E. Lupo said that the incident is “disturbing news” and ordered bailiffs to make sure all jury rooms and court reporters’ notes are safe from intruders.

Talking with reporters after a day in court, Smith said that he, too, found the event “disturbing.”

“This is the kind of thing that makes everybody in my family very nervous,” said the defendant.

Police had not filed charges or released the name of any suspect late Tuesday.

But a free-lance cameraman named Robert Calvert, who worked for the tabloid TV show “Hard Copy” earlier this year, told reporters that he had been on the beach near the Kennedy estate Monday night and was stopped in his van a short time later by police.

Calvert, 38, said that he went back to the Kennedy estate about 1 a.m. Tuesday to seek an apology for his treatment and was stopped by Kennedy security guards and given a summons for trespassing. But he denied that he had broken into the home.