SPOKANE JURORS TO HEAR PORT ANGELES LAWYER'S RAPE CASE

Jurors from Spokane will be brought in for the trial of Theadore E. ''Ted'' Ripley, a Port Angeles attorney accused of sexually abusing a 12- year-old blind Guatemalan girl living in his home.

Judge Hardyn Soule ruled in Clallam County Superior Court yesterday that Ripley, a former county deputy prosecutor, deserved a jury from outside the area because of extensive pretrial publicity in Western Washington. Soule set jury selection to begin in Spokane April 17. No date was set for when jurors would be brought to Port Angeles for the trial.

Ripley, 46, who with his wife, Merrily, has been recognized nationally for adopting 18 children and raising them with their three biological children, is charged with second-degree statutory rape. The girl told investigators she was repeatedly molested by Ripley, his 30-year-old adopted son and a juvenile male in the home, court documents showed. Ripley has denied the charge