« Driver in Super Bowl fatal crash gets 6 to 8 years | Today | Folk singer Tom Paxton at URI colloquium tonight »

September 19, 2006

Narrowing Derderian jury pool taking longer than planned

PROVIDENCE -- They were told to call the court tomorrow. But the 421 men and women of Kent County that remain in the jury pool for Michael Derderian's high-profile trial won't learn their fate for almost another week.

Court spokesman Craig Berke said today that the court and the attorneys involved are not finished going through each potential juror's 32-page questionnaire -- surveys aimed at further narrowing the jury pool by eliminating people with obvious conflicts.

The jury pool -- initially a group of 800 -- gathered at Kent County Courthouse earlier in the month to complete the questionnaires and meet the key characters in the looming trial, including Derderian.

There will be 16 jurors ultimately chosen for the trial that could span three to four months, according to the judge presiding over the case. If and when they call the court tomorrow as instructed by the judge, the jurors will be told to call back on Monday, Berke said.

Derderian faces two counts of involuntary manslaughter for each of the 100 people who died in the Feb. 20, 2003, fire at the West Warwick nightclub he owned with his brother, Jeffrey A. Derderian. Jeffrey Derderian is scheduled to stand trial later.

-- projo.com staff writer Steve Peoples with reports from Journal staff writer Paul Edward Parker

Posted by Steve Peoples  at 6:43 PM | Permalink

Comments

Post a comment

Please be civil. Vicious comments, personal attacks and profanity won't be published. Name and email are required; email address will not publish.

Name:

Email Address:

URL:
Remember Me? YesNo

Comments: (you may use HTML tags for style)