#Metoo likely to alter dynamic of Cosby’s new trial

PHILADELPHIA — The #Metoo movement will be looming over the proceedings when jury selection gets underway Monday 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.

Veteran lawyers and jury consultants say #Metoo will make 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.

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

The AP does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they grant permission, which Constand has done.

In the first trial, jury selection was moved to Pittsburgh over defense fears that widespread publicity could make it difficult to find unbiased jurors in the Philadelphia area. Cosby has a retooled legal team, led by former Michael Jackson lawyer Tom Mesereau, which didn’t seek such measures this time.