Bill Cosby Loses Bid to Move Sexual-Assault Trial Elsewhere, But He’ll Get an Outside Jury

Cosby. Photo: DOMINICK REUTER/AFP/Getty Images

Bill Cosby has received yet another small win in the months leading up to his sexual-assault trial. After deciding only one other accuser can testify against Cosby, a judge has now granted Cosby the opportunity for a more diverse pool of jurors. Despite losing his bid to have his trial moved from the Montgomery County suburb of Norristown, Pennsylvania, to a larger nearby city, Cosby’s jury will be selected from outside the county; NBC reports that many of Cosby’s jurors may even come from his hometown of Philadelphia. Cosby’s lawyers had argued that the 79-year-old actor couldn’t get a fair trial if it were held in Montgomery County because, in 2015, the district attorney ran political ads in that county slamming his opponent’s failure to prosecute Cosby a decade ago. “Unless you’ve been living under a rock, the message that has been promoted, in insidious fashion, is that Bill Cosby is guilty, and that Bill Cosby is a serial rapist,” his lawyers said. The ruling to have an outside jury — who will be sequestered for the duration of the trial — appears to be a compromise. Cosby’s trial for the alleged 2004 sexual assault of former Temple University employee Andrea Constand will begin June 5.

Bill Cosby Will Get an Outside Jury in Sexual-Assault Trial