Jury selection pushed to April
NORRISTOWN » Montgomery County residents currently holding a juror summons for March 29 are no longer facing the possibility of being selected for the jury that will weigh the fate of actor Bill Cosby on sexual assault charges.
That’s because the jury selection process for Cosby’s retrial has been pushed to April 2, according to an order issued by a judge.
It’s those residents receiving a juror summons for April 2 who are now considered potential jurors for Cosby’s retrial, officials said.
In an order filed on Monday, county Judge Steven T. O’Neill, who is presiding over Cosby’s retrial, ruled jury selection, originally set to begin March 29, will now commence on April 2, the day after the Easter holiday. The judge added that March 29 and March 30 are now set aside for “pretrial motions.”
Court documents did not reveal the nature of those remaining pretrial issues. However, the judge’s order indicated the
change in the date for jury selection and the scheduling of additional pretrial hearings came about following a March 16 telephone conference between the judge, prosecutors and defense lawyers.
The judge held two days of pretrial hearings on March 5 and March 6 and at the time it was believed that all pretrial matters had been addressed.
When it does begin, the jury selection process is expected to last several days.
The latest court order does not indicate how many jurors will be summoned to the courthouse on April 2 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 Thomas Mesereau Jr., Kathleen Bliss, Becky James and Lane Vines 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 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 at the county’s expense.
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 mid-January and mid-February 2004.
Cosby, 80, has maintained 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.