Cosby trial judge gives defense 2 big victories
Jury can hear about ‘ framing’ conversation involving star’s accuser
NORRISTOWN, Pa. — The judge in Bill Cosby’s sexual assault retrial gave his legal defense a huge boost Tuesday, ruling his lawyers can call a witness who says the accuser talked about framing a celebrity before she went to police in 2005 with allegations about the comedian.
Judge Steven O’Neill also ruled that jurors can hear how much Cosby paid accuser Andrea Constand in a 2006 civil settlement.
O’Neill had blocked Marguerite Jackson from testifying at the first trial — which ended in a hung jury — saying her testimony would be hearsay.
Jackson’s testimony is crucial to a defense plan to portray Constand as a greedy liar. Constand’s lawyer has said Jackson is lying. The judge issued a caveat to the ruling, saying he could revisit his decision after Constand’s testimony.
O’Neill also hinted during a pretrial hearing last week that he could keep jurors from hearing Cosby’s prior testimony in a deposition about giving quaaludes to women before sex. He said he won’t rule on that until it’s brought up at the retrial.
Tuesday’s rulings came ahead of the second day of jury selection in suburban Philadelphia.
Six more jurors were chosen Tuesday, bringing the total number seated to seven. Five of the jurors are white and two are black. The panel so far has four men and three women.
All of the jurors seated Tuesday say they’ve read media reports about Cosby’s case, but haven’t formed an opinion about his guilt or innocence and can serve as fair and impartial jurors.
Cosby’s lawyers complained that prosecutors had improperly excluded two white men from serving on the jury on the basis of race and age, including one who said he thought many of the women coming forward in the #MeToo movement are “jumping on the bandwagon.”