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Boston Herald: Storm stalls jury selection in Tim Cahill trial

By Laurel J. Sweet

Former state Treasurer Timothy P. Cahill and his ex-campaign manager Scott Campbell will have to wait at least another day and possibly longer before their trial gets under way, after the courts cancelled appearances for unseated jurors in today’s storm.

The Quincy residents are accused of spending $1.5 million in taxpayer-funded Lottery monies as part of a thinly veiled television ad campaign to pump up Cahill’s failed 2010 run for governor.

Jury selection was due to begin today, and while the courts remain open for business, spokeswoman Joan Kenney said jury selection is being postponed.

Cahill’s attorney R. Bradford Bailey told the Herald he expects it will take a full day - if not longer - to seat a jury.

"He’s very much looking forward to getting this under way and having us finally be able to respond in the one place it really matters: in front of a judge and a jury," Bailey said yesterday.

Attorney General Martha Coakley’s office, which brought conspiracy and fraud charges against Cahill, 53, and Campbell, 41, declined comment.

Cahill, who ran for governor as an independent, will argue the ads were launched to promote the Lottery’s success as a counterattack to the Republican Governors Association that Cahill was a fiscally reckless "Beacon Hill insider."

"They were nearly identical to ads that had run in previous years and could be used by subsequent treasurers," Cahill’s attorneys said in prior court filings.

- laurel.sweet@bostonherald.com