Judge rejects request by defense in Primm case

Because 150 news articles have been printed about Jeremy Strohmeyer, attorney Richard Wright argued Monday that special efforts must be made to ensure that a tainted jury is not seated to decide the Long Beach, Calif., teenager's fate in the death of a girl in a Primm hotel-casino restroom.

Wright asked Chief District Judge Myron Leavitt to let the prospective jurors be questioned individually about their knowledge of the case and any opinions they may have formed based on local media coverage.

But Leavitt said he isn't willing to go along with the plan that likely would have resulted in the jury selection process plodding on for weeks.

Wright said there was a need to determine if the prospective jurors had been exposed to "dangerous, prejudicial, inflamatory things published in the media that won't be admitted into evidence."

He noted that transcripts have been posted on the Internet of Strohmeyer's confessions and the grand jury proceedings that resulted in his indictment on charges of raping and murdering 7-year-old Sherrice Iverson.

Deputy District Attorney Bill Koot argued that what the defense team actually is trying to do is expose prospective jurors to various facts destined to be presented in the 19-year-old's trial to see their reaction.

"They want to see who is or isn't sympathetic to their client," Koot said, noting it is not appropriate to ask jurors questions based on the facts of a case.

He pointed out that the issue in jury selection is not whether a person has knowledge of the case but whether an impartial decision can be made about guilt or innocence.

Leavitt said that much of the information sought by the defense team can be obtained through the jury panel's answers to a questionnaire that must be completed before the jury selection process even begins.

The judge said he will ask prospective jurors to specify on their questionnaires what they know about the case.

Leavitt said that 400 people will be brought in to find the 12 jurors and handful of alternates that can spend perhaps five or six weeks hearing testimony in the case. The jurors are going to be sequestered in a hotel for the duration of the trial which could be extended if Strohmeyer is convicted of first-degree murder and the jury must decide his sentence.

Strohmeyer and a friend, David Cash, were at the Primm Valley hotel-casino during the early morning hours of May 25, 1997, when Iverson was followed into a women's restroom, sexually assaulted and strangled.

Cash's father and Iverson's father had stopped at the stateline casino to gamble before returning to their respective Southern California homes.

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