The decision, made by Circuit Judge Mark Gempeler, may be based in part on statements she made to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. In a recent interview, she was quoted as saying: "I wouldn't speak to him [Chmura] or Lynda [Chmura's wife] if they were to drop dead at my feet having a heart attack. I'd step right over them instead of save them ... I wanted to shoot him. And we do have a gun in our house. I wanted to kill him."

Gempeler made the decision during jury selection in the opening day of the sexual assault trial of the 31-year-old former tight end for the Green Bay Packers. Chmura is accused of third-degree sexual assault and child enticement for allegedly luring his children's former babysitter, then 17, into a residential bathroom at a party in April 2000 and then having sex with her.

The center of the action Tuesday was the Rock County courthouse in Janesville, Wis., a small town about an hour and a half southwest of Milwaukee, where jury selection is taking place.

The judge said he wants to have a qualified panel of 26 jurors before peremptory challenges are exercised. Each lawyer has six peremptory challenges in this case. The goal is to have 12 jurors and two alternates by lunchtime Wednesday.

Defense lawyer Gerald Boyle initially requested a change of venue for the trial, citing Chmura's celebrity football status and the conservative nature of the community as grounds for jury bias. Instead, Gempeler decided that the inhabitants of this small town 90 miles from the scene of the crime are far enough away from the media circus in Waukesha to be a fair and impartial jury. The jury will be transported to Waukesha and sequestered throughout the duration of the trial.

Lawyers for both sides have been at each other's throats since the preliminary hearings. And opening day was no exception. Boyle asked the judge to tell jurors that despite its seemingly lighter connotation, child enticement is actually the more severe of the two crimes Chmura was charged with.

District Attorney Paul Bucher got up in arms at the very suggestion, saying that would all but telegraph the sentence to the jurors. His reaction is based on the fact that the job of jurors is to decide the facts in the case. They're not supposed to be swayed by the length of a potential sentence.

Boyle also asked the judge to tell potential jurors about inaccurate media reports. Several media outlets, including the hometown newspaper in Janesville, previously reported that Chmura refused to take a polygraph. But Boyle says it was his decision, not his client's, not take the test.

Boyle, well known in Wisconsin legal circles for defending serial murderer Jeffrey Dahmer, claimed that choosing this jury would be more of a challenge than choosing Dahmer's.

Prior to jury selection, approximately 150 potential jurors filled out a questionnaire designed to weed out those whom the prosecution and defense deemed biased. Of those 150, approximately half were excused before they had to appear in court.

Among the topics being probed by both the prosecution and defense were three areas that could influence a juror's decision: whether Chmura being a Packer would affect their decision, whether detailed testimony of female anatomy and graphic sexual acts would make them squeamish, and whether they have issues with underage alcohol consumption.

Ninety miles away at the county courthouse in Waukesha — the scene of the trial — workers tried to go about their business despite the plethora of cameras, reporters and satellite trucks. An employee in the room where jurors filled out questionnaires tried to water a plant while media personnel turned the place into Wisconsin vs. Chmura Ground Zero. (The plant was knocked over an hour later). At the adjacent jail, a squad of jail guards that had just punched out for the day gawked at the curious (and copious) workhands transforming the dull brown brick courthouse into a makeshift television studio.

Too much media and not enough news outside the Waukesha County Courthouse led reporters to interview each other. Sheriff William Kruziki poked his head around the grounds, meeting media personnel and giving every reporter a resounding, "No comment."

Testimony will likely start in Waukesha on Thursday. If convicted, Chmura could face up to 40 years in prison. Pivotal testimony will likely come from one of the alleged victim's friends, high school football player Michael Kleber, 17. In his original statement to police, Kleber said the young girl was about to enter the bathroom Chmura was changing in. He told her the football player was in there, and she gave him a "smile" as she went in and shut the door behind her, according to his original statement.

He later changed his statement, saying the DA's preliminary questioning frightened him and he was afraid of getting in trouble for underage drinking at the party.