#MeToo movement looms over jury selection in Bill Cosby case

Potential jurors could be more hostile or lenient.

The #MeToo movement will be looming over the proceedings when jury selection gets underway today in Bill Cosby’s sexual assault retrial. But experts say that could cut both ways for the comedian.

It could make some potential jurors more hostile toward him and others more likely to think men are being unfairly accused.

“We really have had this explosion of awareness since that last trial, and it has changed the entire environment,” said Richard Gabriel, a jury consultant who has worked on over 1,000 trials. “It is a huge challenge for the defense, but it could also provide an avenue and open up the topic.”

A jury deadlocked last June at the former TV star’s first trial after Cosby’s lawyers managed to sow enough doubt in the minds of a few jurors. That was before the #MeToo movement against sexual misconduct started toppling famous men in rapid succession, among them Harvey Weinstein, Matt Lauer, Kevin Spacey and Sen. Al Franken.

Veteran lawyers and jury consultants say #MeToo will make the process of picking 12 jurors more complex and raise the stakes even higher.

The defense is likely to use attitudes toward the movement to weed out jurors.

“There may be a juror who says, ‘I don’t have an opinion about Cosby, but the #MeToo is very important to me,’” said Melissa M. Gomez, a jury expert and author of the book “Jury Trials Outside In.” “That person is still very dangerous to the defense.”

Cosby, 80, is charged with drugging and molesting Andrea Constand, a former Temple University athletics administrator, at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004.