A Dauphin County jury was selected this afternoon for the retrial of former state Senate aide Alan Berlin, who is accused of trying to arrange a sexual encounter with an autistic teenage boy via the Internet.

A mistrial was declared after another jury was unable to reach a verdict in Berlin's first trial last year.

The attorney general's office claims Berlin and the boy exchanged graphic emails as Berlin, 43, of Carlisle, tried to set up a sexual encounter in a backyard shed at the boy's Lower Paxton Township home in 2009.

Berlin testified during his 2011 trial that he is a "furry" who adopts an animal persona - that of a panda - to engage in fantasy. He said he thought he was conversing not with a teenager, but with another adult furry who was pretending to be a juvenile dolphin. He said he never intended to have an actual sexual encounter with the person.

Berlin once was an aide to Sen. Jane Orie, R-Allegheny County, and former Sen. Hal Mowery, R-Cumberland County.

Testimony in Berlin's retrial is to begin Tuesday morning in President Judge Todd A. Hoover's courtroom.