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David Fried oppenheim

NORTHAMPTON - Jury selection began Monday in the rape trial of David Fried Oppenheim, the former director of the Pioneer Arts Center of Easthampton, a trial the prosecutor said is likely to start Friday.

By the time court recessed for the day, Judge Mary-Lou Rup and lawyers for the state and Fried Oppenheim had selected five jurors from a pool of about 80.

Assistant Northwestern District Attorney Linda Pisano said 16 jurors will be selected once the process is complete - 12 jurors and four alternates. She said four alternates would be selected instead of the usual two because of the potential length of the trial.

Rup said the trial could last up to two weeks. Three men and two women comprise the jury so far.

Fried Oppenheim, 38, of 55 Glendale St., Easthampton, faces a statutory rape charge based on allegations he had sex with a 14-year-old girl at PACE during private acting lessons and at his home on various occasions from October 2005 to June 2007.

Last week, Rup ruled that a set of instant messages, allegedly exchanged by Fried Oppenheim and a former PACE volunteer, could be used as evidence during the trial.

Prosecutors allege that contained within those messages is a confession from Fried Oppenheim to having sex with the alleged victim.

The former volunteer was 18 at the time, and also claims to have been in a sexual relationship with Fried Oppenheim.

Now 21, the former volunteer was born female but now identfies as male. Among the questions posed to potential jurors Monday was one asking if hearing testimony from a transgender witness would affect their objectivity.

Last week, in a pretrial motion hearing, Northampton defense attorney David Hoose argued against letting jurors hear about electronic messages, saying they are unreliable because the computer that sent them could have been hacked, or used by more than one person. Hoose also argued the volunteer's computer was not forensically examined.

The witness claims that in the approximately 1,000 pages of correspondence is graphic detail from Fried Oppenheim about his first sexual encounter with the alleged victim.

Rup instructed the five empaneled jurors to avoid all discussions and media coverage of the trial before dismissing them for the day.

Fried Oppenheim, dressed in a blue button-down shirt and tan pants participated in the vetting process with his legal team. Jury selection was to resume today.