First five jurors selected for Cosby trial

PITTSBURGH — Three men and two women were chosen Monday as the first of 12 jurors who will hear Bill Cosby’s sexual assault case.

Cosby is charged with aggravated indecent assault. The actor-comedian once known as America’s Dad for his portrayal of Dr. Cliff Huxtable on The Cosby Show is charged with drugging and molesting Andrea Constand, a Temple University women’s basketball team manager, at his home near Philadelphia in 2004. Cosby, who has pleaded innocent to the charges, calls the encounter consensual.

All five are white, and at least three said they had prior knowledge of the scandals that have bedeviled the 79-yearold entertainer since late 2014, but vowed to put what they had heard aside.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys are searching for 12 people and six alternates whose opinions had not been tainted by coverage of events leading up to the trial.

Even so, more than one-third of the 100 potential jurors gathered in the Allegheny County Courthouse indicated Monday that they had an opinion about Cosby’s guilt or innocence. The trial is scheduled to begin June 5 in Norristown, with jurors sequestered for the duration of the trial, which is expected to last two weeks.

The first pool of 100 potential jurors included 53 men and 47 women. Fourteen of those were black.

Fifty additional jurors will be called up today.

AP/GENE J. PUSKAR Bill Cosby (right) leaves the Allegheny County Courthouse in Pittsburgh after attending jury selection Monday in his sexual assault case.