Jury selection wraps up in Bill Cosby’s assault trial

NORRISTOWN, Pa.—Prosecutors and the defense wrapped up jury selection in the Bill Cosby sexual assault case Thursday, setting the stage for the first big celebrity trial of the #MeToo era.

All six alternates — half of them black — were picked without incident after an earlier showdown over the jury’s racial makeup. Alternate jurors listen to the evidence and testimony, but do not participate in jury deliberations unless called upon to replace jurors on the main panel.

Cosby’s lawyers had accused prosecutors of discrimination for removing a black woman from consideration on the main jury of 12 that will decide the fate of the 80-year-old black comedian.

The district attorney’s office rejected the allegation, noting that prosecutors had no objection to seating two other black people on the jury. The other 10 jurors are white. There are seven men and five women.

Opening statements are scheduled for Monday in a trial that’s expected to last a month.

As he left the courthouse, Cosby thanked a woman who wished him good luck. His spokesman, Andrew Wyatt, urged jurors to remain “fair and impartial,” adding, “We would want them to erase everything they heard outside this courtroom when they come in for Monday.”

Prosecutors didn’t comment on the case Thursday.

Cosby faces three felonies stemming from allegations by a former Temple University women’s basketball administrator who says Cosby, a Temple alum and longtime trustee, gave her pills that made her woozy, then assaulted her at his home in the Philadelphia suburbs in 2004.