Effort To Relocate Trial In Sean Bell Shooting Is Opposed

The Reverend Al Sharpton and the Queens district attorney are criticizing a motion filed yesterday to move the Sean Bell police shooting trial out of Queens.

Lawyers defending detectives accused in the shooting of Bell filed the change of venue motion, arguing that the jury pool had been "incurably poisoned" by the publicity surrounding the case.

Bell, who was unarmed, was killed in a hail of 50 bullets as he was leaving his bachelor party at a Queens strip club on the morning of his wedding.

In the motion, the detectives' lawyers attempted to link the Bell case to that of Amadou Diallo, an unarmed African immigrant killed by police whose trial was held outside of New York City. They also cited the results of a survey conducted by a polling firm, Luntz, Maslansky Strategic Research, of 600 potential Queens jurors, 65% of whom said they believed the shooting was "unjustified."

The Queens district attorney, Richard Brown, said he would "vigorously oppose" the motion. "Nothing contained in the defendants' motion papers changes my belief that a fair and impartial jury can be found among the 2.3 million residents of Queens County," he said.

Mr. Sharpton called the motion "outrageous" and said it would allow the three detectives, Michael Oliver, Gescard Isnora, and Marc Cooper, to duck accountability.

Jury selection in the Bell trial begins next month.