PHILADELPHIA (AP) – Thirteen years after a Temple University basketball team manager went to famous alumni Bill Cosby’s nearby home for career advice, her complaint that Cosby drugged and molested her that night will soon be a task for a Pennsylvania jury.
Lawyers this week hope to find a dozen jurors and six alternates willing to spend two weeks or more sequestered nearly 300 miles (482 kilometers) from home.
The case has attracted worldwide publicity the judge hopes to shield from jurors when the trial starts June 5 in suburban Philadelphia. Jurors are being chosen in Pittsburgh starting Monday.
“You want to see if they’re a celebrity-conscious person – if they read celebrity stuff, if they worship celebrity,” trial consultant Howard Varinsky said. “Prosecutors have to be very worried about fans.”
The lawyers also will be weighing a potential juror’s race, gender, age, occupation and interests as the questioning gets underway. They hope to tease out whether they relate more to the beloved actor who brought the world Fat Albert, Dr. Cliff Huxtable and bemused quips about family and fatherhood, or a woman who was rebuffed when she first filed a police complaint, only to relive the case a decade later after Cosby’s testimony from her lawsuit became public and dozens of other accusers came forward to support her.