Jury seated in Saratoga County trial of notorious escape artist

Jury selection is underway in the civil confinement trial of notorious local criminal and escape artist Joel O’Keefe.

A group of 100 prospective jurors reported to the Saratoga County Courthouse on Monday.

Prosecutors from the New York State Attorney General’s Office will make the case that O’Keefe should be civilly confined and not released into the public to live on his own.

O’Keefe was the target of a two-week manhunt in 1994, after he escaped from state police while being prosecuted for burglary. He was accused of breaking into a woman’s Round Lake home and raping her at knifepoint.