Her father was killed by an assassin’s bullet and her uncle met the same fate — so it came across as a somewhat stunning omission when Caroline Kennedy, sitting in a Manhattan jury pool yesterday, failed to answer whether she or a member of her family had been the victim of a crime.
The daughter of JFK and niece of RFK was nevertheless selected for the trial of an accused crack-cocaine peddler, but not before turning heads in a way no other unassuming Upper East Side gal with a backpack and tote bag could.
“My name is Caroline Kennedy. I live on the Upper East Side. I’ve lived at my present address for 25 years,” she said, sitting in the Manhattan Supreme Court jury box.
A murmur of recognition spread through the courtroom, and Kennedy continued — speaking into a small microphone as she recited her answers to a written jury questionnaire.
“I live with my husband and two grown children. I have a law degree,” she said.
Then came the question of whether she or any member of her family had ever been a victim of a crime.
The daughter of President Kennedy and niece of presidential candidate Robert Kennedy skipped it.
Instead, she moved on to the next question, which inquired whether she or anyone close to her has ties to law enforcement.
“My brother, years ago, worked as an assistant district attorney,” she said of John F. Kennedy Jr., who was a prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office for four years in the early ’90s. He was killed in a plane crash off Martha’s Vineyard in 1999.
The philanthropist also did not mention, at least in open court, her 2009 campaign efforts on behalf of the current DA, Cyrus Vance Jr.
She was similarly tight-lipped when a defense lawyer asked whether any prospective jurors knew anyone with a drug problem.
“I know . . . a few people,” she mumbled.
The list of Kennedys with histories of drug issues is long and includes her cousins Robert F. Jr. (heroin), David (heroin) and former Rep. Patrick J. (cocaine).
Kennedy was picked during a closed-door session for the third-degree drug-possession case, expected to last a week or more.
“Absolutely,” Mark Jankowitz, the lawyer for defendant Nelson Chatman, said when asked after court if he believed the jurors could be fair — even those who had headlined fund-raisers for the DA. “Otherwise, I wouldn’t pick them.”
It could not be immediately determined whether, during a closed-door but on-the-record conference with the judge and parties, Kennedy gave a fuller accounting of her law enforcement ties, family history of drug use and tragic connection to two of the biggest political crimes in the twentieth century.
Kennedy and her fellow jurors must return to court today at 11 a.m. for possible openings in the case, which charges Nelson Chatman, 31, sold crack cocaine to an undercover at Lexington Ave. and East 129th Street last December.