`Who's Earl Shriner?' Anyone Not Know? -- Jury Selection May Be Difficult

``Earl Shriner? Who's Earl Shriner?'' bartender Polly Hoag asked the caller as she stood at the back of the Cabin Tavern in downtown Bellingham.

It was the kind of answer prosecutors and defense attorneys were hoping for today, as they began selecting a jury in Bellingham to decide whether Shriner is guilty of raping and mutilating a 7-year-old Tacoma boy last May.

But what Hoag said next would have been less appealing to the attorneys. She quickly connected Shriner's name with the details of a grisly crime that reverberated through many a conversation in the tavern last spring. And she had her verdict ready.

``I'm sure there are a lot of people here who wouldn't mind hanging the guy up . . . and watching him die,'' she said. ``To do a thing like that to a kid, he should be killed.''

The comments illustrate how difficult and time-consuming it may be to choose a jury for the highly publicized and emotional case - even in this placid city 125 miles north of the scene of the crime.

Shriner, 40, has a 24-year history of attacks on young people, including convictions for assault and kidnapping. He is charged with first-degree attempted murder, first-degree assault and two counts of first-degree rape in the attack on the Tacoma boy.

Attorneys today submitted a questionnaire to at least 150 of 250 registered voters summoned for jury duty, from which 12 jurors and several alternates will ultimately be selected. The pool is larger than the 80 people summoned in a typical case because of fears that few among them may have been sheltered from and unswayed by media reports about the attack.

The questionnaire will ask those summoned what they have heard of the Shriner case, whether they already have formed opinions about it, and whether they or any relatives have been victims of sexual abuse. Those whose ability to be fair seems questionable will be excused; others will be asked back for more detailed interviews later in the week.

The location of the jury selection had been heavily guarded until last night. Pierce County Superior Court Judge Thomas Sauriol, who is hearing the case, refused to divulge the information until the last minute for fear someone would plot to kill Shriner in the courtroom or otherwise try to disrupt the case. Sauriol said court personnel, defense attorneys and prosecutors have received phone calls from people threatening to ``blow Shriner away.''

Shriner is being held in solitary confinement at the Whatcom County Jail, where he will stay until jury selection is completed. Two sheriff's deputies and two corrections officers will guard him when he appears in court. The officers also will screen prospective jurors and audience members with metal detectors.

Sauriol decided last fall to select a jury from another county less exposed to publicity about the case. The jury will be brought back to Tacoma to hear testimony, which is scheduled to begin next week.

Choosing the county for jury selection has been a difficult task, according to court staff. For example, one staffer said Sauriol and attorneys had almost decided on Clark County when Westley Dodd was arrested in connection with the murders of three young boys in the Portland and Vancouver areas.

Whatcom County, with its mix of urban and rural communities, transient college students and longtime residents, should produce a balanced jury, said attorneys in the case.

But the county was far from immune from the fallout from the mutilation case, which reached all corners of the state as community leaders and legislators called for sentencing changes to better protect society from sex offenders.

The outcry resulted in the formation of the Governor's Task Force on Community Protection, chaired by Whatcom County native and King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng, which held hearings around the state before making recommendations on sentencing that the state Legislature is now considering.

Helen Harlow, mother of the boy who was attacked and a task-force member, came to Bellingham when the group held a hearing there in August; two dozen victims, law-enforcement officers and social workers showed up to vent their anger at sex crimes.

And the county is still reeling from the death of 18-year-old Amanda Stavik, an apparent homicide victim who was found drowned near her Acme home east of Bellingham in November. Parents in the small community suddenly refused to let their children walk home from school alone. The case is still unsolved.

Lloyde Alton, one of Shriner's defense attorneys, said he wasn't worried about the effect of the Stavik case on potential jurors. ``There's always some concern about something like that - but there's a little different twist on it than this case,'' he said.