Jury selection starts in Herald case

With the plaintiff sitting impassively in the courtroom, jury selection began yesterday in Superior Court Judge Ernest B. Murphy's high-profile libel suit against the Boston Herald in Suffolk Superior Court.

Murphy sued the tabloid over a series of reports that began with a Feb. 13, 2002, front-page story describing his sentencing practices as overly lenient, reporting that he had ''heartlessly demeaned victims," and citing unnamed sources who asserted that the judge had said, ''Tell her to get over it," in reference to a 14-year-old rape victim.

Murphy says the Herald's coverage and the subsequent national play given to those stories brought death threats, traumatized his family, and destroyed his reputation.

The Herald has responded that its lead reporter, David Wedge, worked hard to check the accuracy of the information he was given, and the paper says it stands behind his reporting.

The case, in which Murphy must prove that the Herald acted with reckless disregard for the truth or falsity of the published material, will probably involve several key factors. One is a question over the judge's actual remarks about the rape victim, with Wedge acknowledging in a deposition that he is unclear whether he was told by a key source that Murphy said, ''Tell her to get over it" or ''She's got to get over it."

The issue of Wedge's diligence in seeking out sources who were privy to the judge's remarks will surface, as will comments the reporter made when discussing Murphy on the Fox News Channel show ''The O'Reilly Factor." Another element crucial to the plaintiff's case will be an effort to portray Wedge as someone who callously ignored the consequences of his work on the judge and his family.

Yesterday, after a series of pretrial matters, Boston Municipal Court Chief Justice Charles R. Johnson, who is presiding over the trial, began the slow process of winnowing jurors. He asked prospective panelists whether any of them or their family members had been the subject of an unfavorable newspaper article and whether any of them or their family members had been crime victims.

The Herald's lead counsel, Robert Dushman, and Murphy's lead counsel, Howard Cooper, had hoped to make opening arguments yesterday in what is expected to be a two- to three-week trial, but court adjourned shortly after 4 p.m. without having seated a jury.

Murphy and his wife sat in the courtroom during the daylong proceedings yesterday; Wedge made a brief appearance.

Herald editorial director Ken Chandler was on hand, along with representatives from the paper's public relations firm, who handed out background information to buttress the paper's case to the handful of reporters covering the trial.