Bill for 2nd Cosby trial tops $219,000
NORRISTOWN » Preliminary tallies by Montgomery County officials reveal that the county’s cost to prosecute entertainer Bill Cosby a second time in April has reached more than $219,000.
The $219,311 figure released on Thursday includes costs to house and feed the sequestered jury that ultimately convicted Cosby of sexually assaulting a woman at his Cheltenham home in 2004. The figure also includes overtime costs for county sheriff’s deputies, security personnel, court personnel and tipstaves who were assigned to be with the jurors.
The figure, while it includes $6,777 in overtime costs for county detectives and prosecutors during the trial, apparently does not include other investigative costs incurred by the district attorney’s office. Therefore, the final costs for the second trial are expected to swell when the district attorney reveals those costs at a later date.
The preliminary cost for the second trial was comparable to the total cost associated with Cosby’s first trial in June 2017, which officials put at $219,100.
District Attorney Kevin R. Steele previously said he will seek to force Cosby to pay for the costs of prosecution when Cosby is sentenced by Judge Steven T. O’Neill on Sept. 24.
“Typically what is done… when a sentencing occurs there is also an assessment for the costs of
prosecution. We expect to be arguing that the costs associated with both the trials, the sequestration and the sheriff’s costs, for this will go to the defendant,” Steele said in April after Cosby was convicted of three felony counts of aggravated indecent assault.
The preliminary costs associated with four days of jury selection and the 14-day retrial that ended in April were determined by county officials who reviewed invoices from the various departments involved and payroll records.
The costs include 18 days for the sequestration of the jury at an area hotel and the jurors’ meals, as well as round-the-clock security by sheriff’s deputies.
According to the preliminary figures, costs associated with accommodating the jurors reached about $115,372, including hotel costs of $58,365 and $21,038 for juror meals. Total overtime costs for sheriff’s deputies, security staff and courtroom staff during the trial reached $79,803, according to the preliminary figures.
It cost about $24,135 for the audio and video system that allowed the trial to be livestreamed to spectators in an overflow courtroom.
Cosby’s first trial in June 2017 ended in a mistrial when jurors could not reach a verdict.
For the first trial, that jury of seven men and five women and six alternates was selected in Allegheny County due to pretrial publicity in the case.
County officials said the juror expenses at the first trial reached $74,000, including $46,000 for accommodations and $14,000 for meals. The cost to transport the jurors was $7,300 and the selection process cost the county $6,700.
Whenever he was asked in the past about the costs of such a high-profile trial, Steele would say, “You can’t put a price on justice.”
Cosby, 80, was convicted of charges he sexually assaulted Andrea Constand, a former Temple University athletic department employee, after plying her with “three blue pills,” at his Cheltenham mansion in January 2004. Cosby remains free on 10 percent of $1 million bail while awaiting his sentencing hearing later this year.
Cosby faces a possible maximum sentence of 15 to 30 years in prison on the charges. However, state sentencing guidelines could allow for a lesser sentence.