Stadium Naples: Jury selection taking longer than judge expected

Opening statements in the Stadium Naples public corruption trial of Naples attorney Leo Salvatori aren't expected to begin now until Monday morning.

"I was hoping we would be further along than this," Dakan told attorneys Thursday afternoon.

Dakan expected to have a six-person jury seated by the end of Thursday and begin opening statements today.

But the reality of finding six people and two alternates who hadn't been poisoned by the extensive media coverage, hadn't already made Thanksgiving travel plans and could afford to leave work until at least Dec. 5 proved difficult.

In all, Dakan questioned more than 100 people in groups of three during the past two days, stating the facts of the case again and again and again until he began to get a little giddy.

"I am sorry I've been doing this for two days," he told one batch of potential jurors after stumbling over his introduction to the case and laughing at his own guffaw.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys asked only a few questions, letting Dakan do the weeding out. Occasionally they jumped up and asked further questions.

Assistant Collier County Library Director Marilyn Matthes had nearly made through it the first round of questioning, when Miami defense attorney Bill Richey began poking into her inner thought life.

Richey asked Matthes if she would be concerned about what people would think of her when it came time to render a verdict.

Matthes, a Collier County employee of 21 years, said she could be objective even though she knew of most the players and had worked for some even though she did not see them. She has worked for three of the defendants in the case who have reached plea deals with prosecutors -- former County Manager Neil Dorrill, and former County Commissioners Tim Hancock and Tim Constantine. She has also worked for former Commissioner John Norris who is scheduled for a separate Stadium Naples trial on Jan. 5 in Sarasota with defendant Paul Hardy.

"This is a very important question," Richey said, asking about Matthes' concerns about what people would think.

"I don't know whether I would care what people thought. I have concerns it would bother me," she said.

Some potential jurors dropped quickly from the list.

"No. I've already got my own opinion," one man said.

Others just didn't seem to be telling the truth, including one man who said he could not be on the jury because he knew the Hardy family very well.

Once dismissed because of the close connection, the man walked within inches of Paul Hardy, who was watching in the audience, never glancing in his direction. Hardy shook his head when asked by a reporter if he knew the man.

"He must know my father," Hardy said with a shrug.

By late afternoon 34 people were told to return this morning for the second round of questioning.

Both sides are permitted to object to six potential jurors each, which could knock the pool of 34 down to 22. At least two alternates are needed, leaving 20 people from whom to choose six who will decide the case.

Salvatori becomes the first defendant to stand trial in the case that included three former county commissioners, the former county manager, three developers, the founder of ESPN Sports Network and a now federally convicted hedge-fund manager who bilked investors out of millions of dollars. Seven of the 10 defendants already have entered pleas to reduced or related charges.

Prosecutors say Salvatori, who chose to be tried in Naples, knew when he drew up the Stadium Naples papers in May 1997 that then-Commissioner Norris was getting a sweetheart deal in return for votes beneficial to the Stadium Naples project. Norris' no-money-down, 12.5 percent cut was valued at up to $7.5 million and included a $80,000-a-year consulting fee.

Salvatori had spent months on the behind-the-scenes work as the Maricopa-Hardy developers Paul Hardy, Renee Tolson, hedge-fund manager David Mobley, ESPN founder Bill Rasmussen and Norris divvied up the Stadium Naples pie.

Prosecutors also claim Salvatori knew when he drew up the $100,000 Educorp Inc., business loan for Constantine in April 1997 that it was to curry votes beneficial to the Stadium Naples project.

And Salvatori also participated in drawing up double promissory notes to hide the source of $300,000 in cash that was driven to Naples in a manila envelope by some of his same clients, prosecutors claim.

But defense attorneys have claimed all along that Salvatori knew nothing of the attempt to curry favor with commissioners. He was simply doing the job his clients asked him to do.

Jury questioning continues today at 9 a.m. in Courtroom 2-B.