Officials check if spectator recorded portion of trial
Montgomery County officials are investigating reports that a member of the public who attended the Bill Cosby sexual assault trial allegedly audiotaped a portion of the trial and took photographs from inside a satellite courtroom that broadcast the proceedings.
The alleged recording of the June 12 closing argument of defense lawyer Brian J. McMonagle was later posted to a social media site. The recording, which on Wednesday listed more than 140 views, was subsequently removed. It was no longer available on the site on Thursday.
The video included still photographs apparently taken by a member of the public from inside Courtroom C, the overflow courtroom where attendees could view a live stream of the trial, taking place in Courtroom A, on a large projection screen. The photos were synchronized with the audio of McMonagle’s closing argument, which lasted more than 90 minutes.
“I’ve been made aware of it,” county President Judge Thomas M. DelRicci said Thursday, declining to comment further about the alleged incident.
Under a decorum order issued specifically for Cosby’s trial, “no electronic transmission, video recording, sound recording or any other electronic duplication of the proceedings of any type” was permitted in Courtroom A or Courtroom C.
“Any person who violates the provisions of this order regarding the use of electronic devices will be subject to the penalties for contempt of court (including fines or summary incarceration) under any applicable statute, order or rule of court,” DelRicci and Judge Steven T. O’Neill, who presided over Cosby’s trial, wrote in the decorum order.
Thirty seats were reserved for the general public in Courtroom A and Courtroom C, the overflow courtroom, each day of the trial. Those wishing to attend the trial had to wait in line each morning to obtain a daily pass.
Court administrators repeatedly warned members of the media and the public against using electronic devices in the courtrooms during the 11-day trial.
Several reporters were removed from Courtroom A and lost their credentials to cover the trial when administrators observed them texting on cellphones or surfing websites on their computers. Reporters were permitted to use computers in the courtroom but only for notetaking.
Pennsylvania Rules of Criminal Procedure prohibit the recording or photographing of judicial proceedings. Specifically, Rule 112 prohibits “the taking of photographs, video or motion pictures of any judicial proceedings or in the hearing room or courtroom or its environs during the judicial proceedings.”
Violations of such rules can result in a finding of contempt which can carry penalties ranging from fines to incarceration.
On Saturday, O’Neill declared a mistrial after the seven men and five women on the jury individually told the judge they were hopelessly deadlocked “on all counts” after deliberating more than 52 hours over six days. Cosby, 79, is charged with three felony counts of aggravated indecent assault in connection with allegations he drugged and sexually assaulted Andrea Constand, the former director of women’s basketball operations at Temple University, at his Cheltenham mansion in mid-January 2004.
District Attorney Kevin R. Steele informed the judge he would retry Cosby. A retrial could occur within about 120 days.
The 11-day trial was expected to come at a high cost for the county. Final cost figures for overtime for sheriff’s deputies and court employees and for the sequestration of the jury were not yet available on Thursday, according to county officials.