Cosby wants jury pool prescreened for bias before trial

PHILADELPHIA >> Bill Cosby’S lawyers hope to prescreen potential jurors to weed out those with opinions about the sex-assault case before jury selection begins in person.

A defense motion filed Monday says the “inflammatory” worldwide coverage of the case has probably left some potential jurors with opinions about the actor’s guilt or innocence.

They say pretrial questionnaires have been used before in celebrity trials.

The 79-year-old Cosby is charged with drugging and molesting a young woman at his house in 2004. Cosby calls the sex acts consensual.

He is set to go on trial June 5 near Philadelphia. The jurors will be chosen from the Pittsburgh area because of pretrial publicity and sequestered about 300 miles near the Montgomery County courthouse.

Cosby’s lawyers want to send pretrial questionnaires to 1,500 to 2,000 potential jurors.

Boy, 5, choked by dog pulling on his scarf in snow has died

A 5-yearold Pennsylvania boy has died days after he was choked when the family dog pulled on his scarf as they played in the snow.

The Philadelphia coroner’s office says John Bruno died Saturday at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where he had been under heavy sedation since Wednesday’s accident.

Police say his mother looked out a window of her Warrington home to see her son face-down and unconscious in the snow while the dog tugged at the scarf.

Police initially thought the child had collapsed from cardiac arrest while playing with the 18-monthold hound.

Police say first responders performed CPR on the boy.

A GoFundMe page set up to help the family pay medical costs says John’s smile was electric and he loved “Ninja Turtles, Pokemon, superheroes and being silly.”

2 kids burned by drink at buffet are released from hospital

LANCASTER, PA. >> Officials say two children severely sickened after drinking what they believed to be apple juice at a Chinese buffet have been released from a Pennsylvania hospital.

The 10-year-old boy and 4-year-old girl were taken March 3 to Penn State Hershey Medical Center after their mouths and throats were burned at the Star Buffet & Grill in East Lampeter Township near Lancaster.

Hospital officials said the boy was treated and released, and the girl was in good condition Friday. On Sunday, a spokeswoman said she was no longer listed as a patient.

Police said Department of Agriculture tests indicated that the store-bought juice wasn’t the cause of their injuries.

The department referred questions to police, who haven’t commented further. Authorities have since closed the restaurant, citing possible building code violations.

84-year-old man’s body found, may have died of exposure

FLEETWOOD, PA. >> Police say an 84-year-old Pennsylvania man found dead outside his car on a private lane may have died of exposure.

The family of Dallas Angstadt says he left his home in Rockland Township, Berks County about 12:30 p.m. Friday to go to the bank. Angstadt was diabetic and used a walker.

His family called police when he failed to return from the errand.

Police say his body was found about 2:30 p.m. Sunday, about 90 minutes after friends and family distributed fliers and went looking for him.

The county coroner says Monday that an autopsy isn’t planned, but that a cause of death was pending additional investigation.

Police: Man, woman dead in apparent murder-suicide

SHOEMAKERSVILLE, PA. >> Authorities are calling the deaths of a man and woman found in separate locations in an eastern Pennsylvania borough an apparent murder-suicide.

State police in Berks County say a 911 caller in Shoemakersville reported someone pounding on her door shortly after 1 a.m. Monday and said she then heard a gunshot. Police said 50-year-old Carol Zimmerman of Mohrsville was found shot behind the residence.

Police said the victim said “Garry shot me” before she died. Police said 61-year-old Garry Maurer of Shoemakersville was found deceased in his home about 50 yards away just before 4:30 a.m. of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Trooper David Boehm said Maurer was an acquaintance of Zimmerman and helped care for his mother, who died recently.