PITTSBURGH (AP) – The search for 12 jurors and six alternates for Bill Cosby’s sexual assault trial is off to a brisk start even though a third of the initial jury pool had an opinion about Cosby’s guilt or innocence and an equal number said they or someone close to them had been sexually assaulted.
Three men and two women, all white, were selected Monday. The lawyers studied each person’s race, sex, age, occupation and interests to try to guess their inherent sympathies, experts said. Cosby, in an interview last week, said he thinks race “could be” a motivating factor in the accusations against him.
“You’re looking for what people already believe,” said University of Pittsburgh School of Law professor David Harris. “People don’t take in new information and process it. They filter it into what they already know and think.”
The actor-comedian once known as America’s Dad for his portrayal of Dr. Cliff Huxtable on “The Cosby Show” is charged with drugging and molesting a Temple University women’s basketball team manager at his home near Philadelphia in 2004. He has called the encounter consensual.
Dozens of other women have made similar accusations against Cosby, 79, but Judge Steven T. O’Neill is allowing only one of them to testify at the June 5 trial in suburban Philadelphia. The jury from Pittsburgh will be sequestered nearly 300 miles from home.