Jury selection began yesterday in the high-profile trial, which is expected to begin next week in a courtroom filled with reporters from the national media, family members and law-enforcement officers, who have backed Higbee since questions first arose about the circumstances of the collision.
Witnesses to the accident told police that the Ford Crown Victoria driven by Higbee, of Somers Point, blew through a stop sign at Tuckahoe and Stagecoach Roads and broadsided the minivan, which was traveling west on Tuckahoe.
He was driving so fast - without emergency lights or sirens, according to witnesses - that the impact propelled both women through the passenger-side window.
Higbee told investigators that he was chasing a speeder.
So mangled was the wreckage that when the young women's grandmother went looking for them, she did not recognize the white minivan when she came upon the accident scene near her home outside Ocean City.
Higbee, 36, suffered minor injuries and spent one night in an area hospital. Five months later, he was indicted by a grand jury and has been suspended from the state police without pay pending the trial's outcome.
The former high school and college star athlete became a state trooper in 2001. He previously signed with the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League as a free agent but never played in a regular-season game. He also played professional basketball briefly for the Washington Generals, the exhibition team that goes up against the Harlem Globetrotters.
Since his suspension, the husband and father of a year-old daughter has worked in marketing and as a freelance sports trainer, according to his lawyer.
