PORTLAND – A Massachusetts man charged with two counts of manslaughter in connection with a boating accident last summer on Long Lake is expected to go to trial with jury selection starting Sept. 8 in Cumberland County Superior Court.

A judge said he would consider a motion to change the location of the trial closer to that date.

Attorneys for Robert LaPointe, 39, of Medway, Mass., and Bridgton were seeking to change the trial venue, citing prejudicial pretrial publicity. They also filed a slew of motions seeking to exclude from trial LaPointe’s statements to law enforcement authorities, physical evidence and blood-alcohol test results. Those motions were heard and the judge has ruled on them.

LaPointe was driving a 34-foot, twin-engine Sunsation Dominator speedboat after dark in the middle of the lake on Aug. 11, 2007, when it struck a 14-foot motorboat operated by Terry Raye Trott, 55, of Naples. The collision cut the smaller boat in half. Trott and his passenger, Suzanne Groetzinger, 44, of Berwick were killed.

LaPointe and his passenger, Nicole Randall of Bridgton, a family friend, were thrown from his boat, but were able to swim more than 1,000 feet to shore. LaPointe’s boat continued through the water and ran aground, going 130 feet into the woods on the east shore of the lake near the Naples line.

Prosecutors estimate LaPointe’s boat was traveling roughly 45 mph at the time of the crash.

His blood-alcohol level, drawn nearly three hours after the crash, was .11 percent. The legal threshold for driving is .08 percent. At an earlier court hearing, prosecutors said LaPointe had sought to have a nurse substitute her blood for his that night.

Three lawyers, including one high-profile attorney, make up LaPointe’s legal defense team. J. Albert Johnson of Boston represented Patty Hearst during a 1976 bank robbery trial in 1976 and Pamela Smart, a New Hampshire teacher who is serving time for hiring a teenager she seduced to kill her husband. Johnson also represented Capt. Ernest Medina, who was charged with 102 counts of murder stemming from the infamous “My Lai massacre” during the Vietnam war.

LaPointe reportedly paid a $275,000 retainer for his defense. Court records said he and his wife took out a $100,000 equity loan on their Bridgton home and sold 100 acres there to LaPointe’s father to raise $125,000 in cash after LaPointe’s indictment last fall. An attorney representing the estate of the woman who was killed claims the sale of land was an effort by LaPointe to shield his assets.

LaPointe remains free on $50,000 cash bail.

Of the seven original charges, two were dismissed after prosecutors filed a motion explaining that, according to state law, a boat is not a motor vehicle because a lake is not defined as a legal “way.” For that reason, two charges of aggravated operating under the influence were dropped.