NEW YORK - About 700 New Yorkers are expected in federal court in Brooklyn tomorrow to begin the latest legal journey through one of the city's wrenching memories, the sexual assault of Abner Louima in a Brooklyn police station bathroom in 1997.
The 700 people will be the pool of potential jurors for the new trial of a twice-convicted former police officer, Charles Schwarz. In 1999, he was convicted of pinning down Louima while another officer, Justin A. Volpe, sodomized Louima with a broken stick. The next year, he was found guilty of covering up the assault. Last winter, an appeals court ordered a retrial for Schwarz.
The legal strategies, as well as the city itself, have changed considerably since Schwarz's original conviction. An orchestrated "Free Chuck Schwarz" campaign has portrayed him as an innocent man, and countless articles on the case have been published. In March, prosecutors, expanding their civil rights case against Schwarz, filed perjury charges claiming that he lied when he testified that he had had no role in the attack.
Lawyers say the first indication of how those changes will affect Schwarz's new trial will come from the questions the potential jurors are asked - and from their answers - in a jury selection process that is expected to last at least three weeks.
"Jury selection is especially important in a high-profile case," said James E. Neuman, a criminal law expert who specializes in appeals. "Because there has been more publicity, there are that many more chances for a juror to be improperly influenced."
The prosecutors have not said whether they plan to pursue separate charges that Schwarz and two other former officers, Thomas Wiese and Thomas Bruder, lied to investigators during the inquiry into the case. All three officers' convictions on obstruction-of-justice charges were also overturned.
The potential jurors, who are to be anonymous because of concerns about reporters and other people trying to reach them, are to fill out a 30-page questionnaire prepared by the lawyers and the judge, Reena Raggi of U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
Last week, Raggi denied a request by several newspapers to release the questionnaire in advance of tomorrow's proceeding. But several pivotal questions have been discussed in court.
The potential jurors are to be asked, for example, whether they have opinions about the treatment of racial minorities by law enforcement authorities that might affect their ability to be impartial. Louima is a black Haitian immigrant; Schwarz is white.
At the insistence of the chief prosecutor, Alan Vinegrad, who has pursued the case almost since its inception, they are to be asked whether they have formed an opinion about Schwarz's innocence or guilt.
The chief defense lawyer, Ronald P. Fischetti, has indicated that he will attack Louima's credibility more than defense lawyers have in the past.
Since Schwarz's last trial, Louima has settled a civil suit against the city and the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, the police union. He received more than $8 million. Fischetti has suggested that the settlement and the passage of time might moderate sympathy for Louima.