First five jurors chosen for Cosby’s sexual-assault trial
PITTSBURGH: The jury that will decide whether Bill Cosby is guilty of sexually assaulting a woman at his Philadelphia-area home 13 years ago began taking shape Monday as five jurors were seated during a lengthy opening day of the famed entertainer’s trial.
The duelling over jurors, which is set to continue Tuesday, offered some hints at what each side is hoping the panel of 12 jurors and six alternates will look like. Defence attorneys angled to block young white women from the jury, and the prosecution kept an African American woman from being seated.
Cosby watched attentively as Judge Steven T. O’Neill individually questioned a parade of potential jurors who took seats at the same table where Cosby sat just a few feet away. Still, at one point Cosby raised his hand and asked court officials to instruct jurors to speak up.
The 79-year-old comedian and actor is accused of drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand, a former Temple University women’s basketball team staffer, in 2004.
Three white men and two white women were eventually seated on the jury. The jurors, whose names were not disclosed, range from an elderly man who entered the courtroom leaning on a cane to a woman who said she is a mother and appeared to be in her 30s or early 40s. Each side can block seven jurors from being empanelled, and the process quickly began to resemble a chess match as attorneys tried to decide which potential jurors to strike.
The emotions of the mostly tense day peaked late in the afternoon when prosecutors huddled to try to decide whether to use one of their seven strikes to block the seating of a middleaged African American woman who said she’d formed some opinions about the case from watching media coverage. While the prosecutors spoke in hushed tones, Cosby laughed so hard that he had to hold his hand over his mouth.
When prosecutors announced their decision to keep the black candidate off the jury, Cosby’s defence attorney Brian McMonagle frowned in an animated fashion and shook his head, staring out to the audience of reporters gathered in the cramped courtroom with its wheezy air conditioner. Legal experts have speculated that Cosby - who has said racism played a role in his prosecution might benefit from having blacks on the jury.
While the prosecutors spoke in hushed tones, Cosby laughed so hard that he had to hold his hand over his mouth.
Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, prosecutor Kevin Steele seemed surprised at the fast pace, saying to a court security guard at a break: “We’ve got five jurors. Didn’t think we’d get this far.”
Pre-trial publicity is one of the biggest challenges facing the defence as they size up potential jurors gathered in this large downtown courthouse, which resembles a medieval castle. One third of the 100 potential jurors said Monday that they’ve already formed an opinion about the comedian’s guilt or innocence.
Earlier in the day, Cosby sat in a larger courtroom before the entire jury pool, mostly staring impassively at the ceiling. But Cosby’s hands clenched ever so slightly and he closed his eyes when O’Neill asked about preconceived notions.
The relentless media coverage of Cosby’s alleged sexual misdeeds was a recurring theme in the questioning, harking to news reports about 60 women who have said Cosby raped, sexually assaulted or sexually harassed them in the past five decades. (He has denied all such claims.) Only about 14 potential jurors said they hadn’t heard anything about the allegations against Cosby.
Cosby’s defence team persuaded the judge to select a jury from Pittsburgh, some 300 miles west of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, where the prosecutors lodged the charges, by arguing that potential jurors in Montgomery County, in suburban Philadelphia, were tainted by intense pre-trial publicity.
O’Neill told jurors they will be bused to Montgomery County to hear testimony in a trial that is scheduled to begin June 5 and expected to last two to three weeks. He said they would be sequestered in a “very nice hotel.”
Cosby arrived at the courthouse in a tan jacket and a tie spotted with large orange and yellow polka dots. Cosby, who says he’s legally blind, leaned heavily on the arm of his publicrelations representative and carried a slender wooden cane. When he entered the courtroom he cupped a box of facial tissues in his hand, then slid it around the wooden defence table until it was positioned just within his reach.