PHILADELPHIA _ A jury of six men and six women was selected Monday to decide the fate of Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane, clearing the way for opening arguments Tuesday in Norristown.
"We have our jury," Common Pleas Court Judge Wendy Demchick-Alloy announced after a nine-hour selection process.
She said Kane's trial on perjury, conspiracy, obstruction and other charges would last a week.
Earlier in the day, the judge read a list of people who will either be witnesses at the trial or whose names may come up in testimony. The list included judges, prosecutors, political figures, reporters and former or current staffers in Kane's agency. She asked jurors to disclose if they knew any of those named.
The list of names includes:
_ Frank Fina, a former top state prosecutor with whom Kane was feuding. She is accused of seeking revenge against him by illegally leaking secret grand jury information.
_ Former Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Seamus McCaffery. He resigned from the court after it was revealed that he had exchanged hundreds of pornographic email messages on state computers.
_ Former Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman, who charged Kane last year and is now a county judge.
_ Montgomery County Judge William Carpenter, who oversaw an investigative grand jury into the alleged leak.
_ Thomas Carluccio, the special prosecutor who led the grand jury investigation.
_ Tyron Ali, the undercover operative in a sting investigation involving Democratic elected officials from Philadelphia. Kane, a Democrat, secretly shut down the investigation, which had been launched by Fina.
_ Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams, who later prosecuted and won convictions against officials caught in the sting that Kane declined to pursue.
_ Numerous former or current aides to Kane, including former aides Adrian King, Linda Dale Hoffa, David Tyler, Bruce Beemer, Chuck Ardo, and current aide David Peiffer, who is to testify under a grant of immunity.
The potential jurors were also asked whether they would have difficulty convicting or acquitting Kane based on her position as the state's top law enforcement official, or whether the media attention to the case would affect them. None of the jurors answered yes to those questions. Prosecutors and defense lawyers spent the afternoon questioning individual jurors in the judge's chambers.
Kane, 50, arrived at the courthouse Monday morning accompanied by her twin sister, Ellen Granahan, a deputy in the Attorney General's Office, and their parents.
Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin R. Steele and his team of prosecutors say Kane illegally leaked secret grand jury information in a bid to embarrass Fina, and later lied about it under oath.
The case was pursued by Montgomery County prosecutors because Kane is alleged to have leaked material from a grand jury that was seated in Norristown.
Kane, who has pleaded not guilty, has portrayed the case against her as a vindictive prosecution fueled by a group of men who wanted to get back at her for exposing the exchange of pornographic emails by prosecutors, judges and defense lawyers on state computers.
Last week, Kane filed a last-minute motion with the state Supreme Court, asking to have the case dismissed. The high court denied her motion Friday, clearing the way for trial.
Kane is in the final year of her first term in office. She is not seeking a second term.
