by Charlie Brennan
EAGLE, Colorado, Aug 27 (AFP) - The first of more than 600 potential jurors filed into court Friday to face a grilling, as US basketball star Kobe Bryant's long-awaited rape trial officially got underway.
But the task of selecting a panel of 12 people who could decide whether the rich and famous Los Angeles Lakers player will spend the rest of his life is jail promises to be a tough one.
The potential jurors began filing into court in the mountain hamlet of Eagle in the western US state of Colorado to face an 82-point questionnaire that will help decide their eligibility to hear the celebrity case.
Bryant and his legal team were not in court as the jurors began answering questions aimed at learning whether they have connections to anyone in the case or if for some reason they cannot render a fair and impartial verdict.
"People ask if we can find people who haven't heard about the case," said Karen Salaz, spokeswoman for the Colorado Judicial Branch.
"That's really not the question. The question is whether we can find people who can set aside what they have heard or seen. That's the goal," she said, expressing optimism that, despite massive worldwide publicity about Bryant's case, a suitable jury of 12 plus two alternates can be found.
Publicity has bathed every aspect of the case that began 14 months ago with Bryant's arrest for allegedly sexually assaulting a 19-year-old woman in his plush hotel room near here on June 30 last year.
Unlike in other cases in which jurors sometimes try to escape jury service, prosecutors and defense lawyers in the passion-evoking Bryant trial will be on guard against potential jurors attempting to infiltrate the panel in order to try to shift the verdict one way or another, some experts said.
The case of the black NBA player accused of violating a young white woman brings into play the socially gripping but divisive ingredients of race, wealth and celebrity.
The jurors' completed questionnaires will be reviewed by lawyers for both sides at the weekend, with individual one-on-one questioning of potential jurors to begin Monday behind closed doors.
The massed press corps and members of public will not be allowed to watch the jury selection process until questioning of potential panel members is completed Tuesday or Wednesday.
A total of 999 summons were sent out to potential jurors, in a county of only about 41,000 people, but only 684 residents were actually called and were expected to present themselves in four waves throughout the day Friday.
With about a dozen satellite television trucks already on hand, and 568 journalists credentialed to cover the case, even the mere sight of potential jurors entering the Eagle County courthouse created a stir.
But reporters were under orders not to speak to jury candidates, and news photographers were instructed not to photograph them -- or even their legs or feet.
Bryant, 26, has pleaded innocent to rape and says sex with the woman, who was a hotel concierge, was consensual.
He faces up to life in prison, but he could receive a lesser sentence, including a fine of up to 750,000 or up to 20 years probation if convicted. He is free on 25,000 dollars bail.
But the prosecution's case has taken a severe battering following a number of decisions by trial Judge Terry Ruckriegle that even led to speculation that the case may collapse ahead of trial.
The most damaging decision for the prosecution was one to allow into evidence details of the accuser's sex life around the time of her encounter with Bryant.
The National Basketball Association star's lawyers claim that injuries to the accuser's genitalia were caused by multiple sexual partners in a short period of time around her encounter with Bryant, not by rape.
The defense will be able to tell the jury that they believe the alleged victim, now 20, had sex with "three men in three days" and that she may have had sex with another man shortly Bryant.
Prosecutors tried in vain to delay the trial and on Thursday, one day before jury selection began, called into question the integrity of key DNA evidence that could help prove Bryant innocent.
Ruckriegle however declined to delay proceedings and ordered prosecutors to refile the motion asking for the defense to prove the evidence has not been contaminated or manipulated next week.