EVERETT — Almost exactly a year after officer Dan Rocha was killed in an Everett parking lot, jury selection began Tuesday in the trial of Richard Rotter.
Jury selection, known as voir dire, was expected to take days in Snohomish County Superior Court as hundreds of Rotter’s peers will be whittled down to 15, making a jury of 12 with three alternates.
The defense raised concerns that seating an impartial jury would be impossible. Last month, Rotter’s public defenders asked Judge Bruce Weiss to move the trial out of Snohomish County arguing media coverage could prejudice jurors. Weiss denied the motion, setting the stage for this month’s trial that’s expected to last three weeks.
Weiss said Tuesday he won’t allow pictures or video of Rotter’s face until a jury is selected.
Rotter appeared in court Tuesday in a blue dress shirt, blue tie and glasses. In previous court hearings, he’d been wearing jail uniforms.
As is standard, Weiss told jurors not to engage with any media coverage of the case. He also urged them not to tell anyone they could be serving on a jury.
The jurors first answered a questionnaire to get a sense of how much they know about the case and whether or not they have scheduling conflicts.
Weiss estimated individually questioning 10 jurors takes about an hour and 15 minutes, meaning only 40 jurors could be taken per day. The first group was about 200 people. Another group of possible jurors was expected Thursday.
The first set of 10 took nearly 45 minutes Tuesday.
The judge said he’s “confident we can seat a jury in this county, but it’s going to take quite a bit of time.”
Judge Weiss speaks to the attorneys during jury selection at the Snohomish County Courthouse on Tuesday, March 14, 2023 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
The lawyers first questioned potential jurors who indicated they had scheduled vacations, funerals, work or something else during the trial that could get in the way of jury duty.
When questioned by Weiss, one juror noted he had friends who were police officers, but believed he could remain impartial. He was not excused from jury duty.
Others who noted prior knowledge of the case or issues with impartiality were expected to be questioned in the coming days.
On March 25, 2022, Rocha confronted Rotter about moving guns between two cars in a Starbucks parking lot at 1010 N. Broadway, body-camera footage shows.
What followed was a relatively calm exchange lasting eight minutes before a struggle broke out, ending with Rotter shooting Rocha several times, according to court papers.
Police believe Rotter fled the scene in a blue Mini Cooper. Officers arrested him minutes later following a three-vehicle crash at 35th Street and Rucker Avenue.
Snohomish County prosecutors charged Rotter, 51, with aggravated first-degree murder in the Everett patrol officer’s death. A convicted felon, he also faces unlawful firearm possession charges, as well as possession of fentanyl, heroin and methamphetamine with intent to manufacture or deliver.
In court filings, the defense has indicated it won’t disagree Rotter was the man who shot and killed Rocha. Instead, they expect to argue the slaying couldn’t be premeditated due to the defendant’s post-traumatic stress disorder and drug use at the time of the confrontation.
If convicted as charged, Rotter faces one possible sentence: life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Jake Goldstein-Street: 425-339-3439; jake.goldstein-street@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @GoldsteinStreet.
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