DECISION PENDING
Judge weighs admissibility of Spanish fly evidence at Bill Cosby assault trial
A judge has taken under advisement a request by prosecutors to admit Bill Cosby’s references to the aphrodisiac Spanish fly in a 1991 book and television interview at the actor’s trial on charges he sexually assaulted a woman in 2004.
After a day-long pretrial hearing on Monday, Montgomery County Judge Steven T. O’Neill said he will rule on the matter before Cosby’s June 5 trial gets under way on charges of aggravated indecent assault in connection with his alleged contact with Andrea Constand, a former Temple University athletic department employee, after plying her with blue pills and wine at his Cheltenham home sometime between mid-January and mid-February 2004.
“The context is important here, admissions that demonstrate motive and intent,” Assistant District Attorney M. Stewart Ryan argued to the judge as he sought to use excerpts from Cosby’s book and television interview at trial. “You’re talking about claims by the defendant administering intoxicants to women who were not in a particular mood.”
Referring to Cosby’s 1991 book “Childhood,” Ryan, District Attorney Kevin R. Steele and co-prosecutor Kristen Feden contend the actor recounted a memory from his youth in which he and his friends seek out “Spanish Fly, an aphrodisiac so potent that it could have made Lena
“Taking this out of the ordinary course of business will create an opportunity for taint of a jury.” — Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin R. Steele
Horne surrender to Fat Albert.” Cosby, prosecutors alleged, wrote that he and his friends needed the aphrodisiac because females were “never in the mood for us.”
The book excerpts, prosecutors maintained, also suggest Cosby “had a willingness and motive to push ‘chemicals’ to obtain sex from the otherwise unwilling victim.”
Prosecutors also contend that in a1991 interview on “The Larry King Show,” Cosby extolled Spanish fly as a drug that “all boys from
age 11 on up to death” will be searching for.
But defense lawyers Brian J. McMonagle and Angela C. Agrusa asked the judge to keep Cosby’s Spanish fly references out of the trial.
“This is a comedy routine and not relevant. It was comedy. I don’t think it’s worthy of great debate,” McMonagle argued.
In court papers, defense lawyers argued Cosby’s remarks were a form of artistic expression and social commentary.
As Cosby, 79, left the courthouse, adoring fans, yelled, “We love you Bill, you’re innocent, man.” Cosby, carrying a cane and
holding the arm of a member of his security team, responded, “All right!”
O’Neill also addressed several jury selection issues and appeared to not favor Cosby’s request to prescreen up to 2,000 potential Pittsburgh-area jurors with an extensive questionnaire for his sex-assault trial before they are even summoned to court.
O’Neill favors the timehonored traditional procedure under which a standard court-approved questionnaire is mailed to potential jurors before they are summoned to court. O’Neill said more extensive questioning of jurors, with more specific questions, can occur after they arrive in court for in-person questioning.
McMonagle and Agrusa originally proposed a jury selection protocol that included mailing questionnaires to up to 2,000 prospective jurors, before in-person jury selection began, in an effort to weed out those who may have already
formed opinions regarding Cosby’s guilt or innocence. Agrusa argued Cosby’s “celebrity,” the high-profile nature of the case and media attention created unique circumstances.
“Mr. Cosby is a celebrity and world-renowned. He has been entertaining audiences for half a century, His exposure is tremendous,” Agrusa argued. “You cannot walk into a grocery store, a convenience store or a minimart without seeing headlines, not just in the tabloids but in the mainstream news and print…Mr. Cosby is not asking for special treatment.”
Simply asking jurors in a traditional questionnaire if they can be impartial is not sufficient, Agrusa argued.
“You have to vet it…to reveal hidden biases,” Agrusa said.
But Steele suggested Cosby was seeking special treatment and he argued the standard and well-established process of jury selection already in place in
Allegheny and Montgomery counties would be adequate. Steele said jurors can be vetted more extensively after they arrive in court for in-person questioning.
“Taking this out of the ordinary course of business will create an opportunity for taint of a jury,” argued Steele, adding allowing jurors to answer a more extensive questionnaire at home before they come to court would allow them to get the input of others in their household and help them devise ways to “get out of jury duty.” “It provides too much of an opportunity for potential taint.”
O’Neill revealed about 125 potential jurors could be screened each day and he said he is seeking a jury of 12 and six alternate jurors for the trial. O’Neill also suggested the selection process get underway as early as May 22 if Allegheny County can accommodate the plan.
“It appears we will be able to go out early,” said O’Neill, adding an exact
date will be finalized in the next few days.
On March 13, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court selected Allegheny County as the site for jury selection. The state’s highest court was responding to O’Neill’s Feb. 27 request that another county be chosen for the jury selection process.
When jury selection does commence, Cosby and his security entourage, county prosecutors, defense lawyers, O’Neill and likely a contingent of the judge’s staff will travel to Pittsburgh to select the panel.
Those Pittsburgh-area citizens selected to weigh Cosby’s fate will then be transported to Montgomery County and sequestered in an area hotel for the duration of the trial, which lawyers implied on Monday will last at least two weeks.
Cosby currently remains free on 10 percent of $1 million bail. If convicted of the charges at trial, the former sitcom star faces a possible maximum sentence of 15 to 30 years in prison.
“You cannot walk into a grocery store, a convenience store or a mini-mart without seeing headlines, not just in the tabloids but in the mainstream news and print… Mr. Cosby is not asking for special treatment.” — defense lawyer Angela C. Agrusa