Date set for jury selection
NORRISTOWN » Montgomery County residents who receive a jury summons for March 29 might end up deciding the fate of entertainer Bill Cosby who is accused of sexually assaulting a woman at his Cheltenham mansion in 2004.
That’s the day Judge Steven T. O’Neill has set aside for jury selection to begin for Cosby’s retrial on sex assault charges, according to a court order available on Monday. Testimony at the trial is slated to begin April 2.
The court order does not indicate how many jurors will be summoned to the courthouse on March 29 for the selection process. But on that day, District Attorney Kevin R. Steele and co-
prosecutors M. Stewart Ryan and Kristen Feden and the defense team consisting of lawyers Tom Mesereau, Kathleen Bliss and Samuel W. Silver will sift through juror questionnaires and begin interviewing potential jurors.
O’Neill is expected to seek a jury panel of 12 and six alternate jurors for the retrial, as he did last June for Cosby’s first trial, which ended in a mistrial.
During Cosby’s first trial, a jury from Allegheny County was selected after Cosby’s previous defense team argued pretrial publicity prevented Cosby from obtaining a fair and impartial jury in Montgomery County.
However, Mesereau previously told the judge the new defense team will not seek an out-of-town jury for the April 2 retrial. That
means Cosby’s jury will be comprised solely of Montgomery County residents.
Because of the high-profile nature of the celebrity legal drama, it’s likely the panel that is selected will be sequestered at an area hotel for the duration of the trial.
William Henry Cosby Jr., as his name appears on charging documents, faces three counts of aggravated indecent assault in connection with allegations he had inappropriate sexual contact with Andrea Constand, a former Temple University athletic department employee, at his Cheltenham home after plying her with blue pills and wine sometime between midJanuary and mid-February 2004. Cosby, 80, maintains his contact with Constand was consensual.
Cosby remains free on 10 percent of $1 million bail, pending the retrial and faces a possible maximum sentence of 15 to 30 years in prison if convicted of the charges.
Cosby’s first trial ended in a mistrial last June 17 after a jury of seven men and five women selected from Allegheny County individually told the judge they were hopelessly deadlocked “on all counts” after deliberating more than 52 hours over six days. The deliberations took longer than the evidentiary portion of the trial.
Steele immediately vowed to seek a retrial.
Mesereau, Bliss and Silver replace lawyers Brian J. McMonagle and Angela Agrusa, who represented Cosby at the first trial.
Mesereau is best known for representing the late Michael
Jackson at a 2004 California trial at which Jackson was acquitted of all child molestation charges. Mesereau’s other celebrity clients have included actor Robert Blake and boxer Mike Tyson, according to Mesereau’s web site.
The new defense team has not hinted at its defense strategy.
During Cosby’s June trial, McMonagle and Agrusa argued Cosby was the victim of false accusations and that the entertainer and Constand had a “romantic relationship” and consensual sexual contact during the 2004 incident. At one point during the trial, McMonagle
stood beside Cosby and suggested to jurors that while Cosby may have been an unfaithful husband, that didn’t make him a criminal.
Prosecutors argued Cosby was a trusted friend and mentor who took advantage of a woman in a “vulnerable state,” and sexually assaulted Constand.
Constand, 44, of Ontario, Canada, testified over two days that after taking the blue pills she began slurring her words and became “frozen” or paralyzed and was unable to fight off Cosby’s sexual advances. Constand claimed Cosby placed her on a couch, touched her breasts, forced her to touch his penis and performed digital penetration all without her consent.
The 11-day trial came at a high cost for the county. When county officials completed their calculation of the Cosby trial expenses, they indicated the cost of the trial reached $219,100. The trial that began June 5 was the highest-profile case to ever play out in a county courtroom.
The newspaper does not normally identify victims of sex crimes without their consent but is using Constand’s name because she has identified herself publicly.