Jury selection off to a plodding start in Cosby’s sex trial
PITTSBURGH — The difficulty of finding 12 impartial jurors to weigh sexual assault charges against Bill Cosby was on full display as jury selection began here Monday, when most of the potential jurors admitted to being aware of the blaze of publicity surrounding that entertainer in recent years, amid allegations by dozens of women.
When asked by Judge Steven T. O’Neill if they had formed an opinion about Cosby’s guilt or innocence, 34 of the first 100 potential jurors questioned raised the numbered cards used to identify them. When the judge asked if they had “heard, read or seen anything” about the case, more than 80 of the cards shot up.
In addition, 67 jurors said it would impose a personal hardship on them to serve on the panel, sequestered, for a trial expected to last two weeks in June.
17 months since charge
Nearly 17 months after Cosby was charged with the aggravated indecent assault of Andrea Constand at his home in suburban Philadelphia in 2004, O’Neill and the lawyers in the case began the arduous process of choosing among potential jurors, drawn from lists of registered voters and drivers in Allegheny County.
By midafternoon, three jurors had been selected: two men and one woman, all of them white. The defense had struck four using its peremptory challenges.
Cosby, 79, arrived at the Allegheny County Courthouse in Pittsburgh before 8 a.m., holding a cane and helped by an aide. He walked slowly through a courtyard in the middle of the building and declined to answer reporters’ questions.
The jury pool is being drawn here because of concerns raised by Cosby’s defense team that it would be hard to find open-minded jurors in Montgomery County — near Philadelphia — where Cosby has a home and where the trial is scheduled to start June 5 in Norristown.
‘Out of ordinary’ pool
Cosby’s lawyers had requested instead a larger and more diverse jury pool drawn from Philadelphia or the Pittsburgh area.
In the wood-paneled courtroom on the third floor of the courthouse, O’Neill stressed the importance of the task before them and the need to avoid outside views of the case.
Among the issues that close observers of the trial are watching: Will the jury be dominated by AfricanAmericans, who, Cosby’s lawyers might believe, could hold affection for him after his decades as a major entertainer?
About three-quarters of those in the initial jury pool were white, and when asked, none raised their cards when asked if they would be biased against Cosby because he is black.
In proceedings that could take several days, O’Neill and the lawyers will try to select the 12 jurors, plus six alternates, who not only have been unmoved by the pretrial publicity but also are available to be bused 300 miles east to Norristown and sequestered for the duration of the trial.
Foreseeing the difficulties of overcoming those factors, the court sent out a jury summons to a larger-than-usual pool: 2,934 people.
“It’s out of the ordinary due to the high-profile nature of the case,” said James Koval, director of communications for Pennsylvania courts, who said a more typical number for the pool is 150.