Jury selection for Bill Cosby's trial to begin May 22
The sex-assault panel will be picked in Pittsburgh.
Jury selection for Bill Cosby's sexual-assault trial will begin May 22 in Pittsburgh, a Montgomery County judge ruled Tuesday.
The entertainer's trial is still scheduled to begin June 5 in Norristown. Jurors selected from Allegheny County will be transported to Montgomery County and sequestered during the trial.
Judge Steven T. O'Neill has said he plans to screen about 125 jurors per day. The judge denied a request from prosecutors to send questionnaires to as many as 2,000 potential jurors before they report to court.
O'Neill said lawyers on both sides can submit questions to ask potential jurors. Six alternates will be selected to sit through the trial in addition to 12 jurors.
Cosby, 79, is charged with aggravated indecent assault. Prosecutors say he drugged and molested former Temple University employee Andrea Constand at his home in Cheltenham in 2004.
Other outstanding pre-trial issues include whether portions of Cosby's 2005 deposition will be excluded from evidence at trial, and whether prosecutors can introduce as evidence Cosby's own jokes about the use of an aphrodisiac known as "Spanish Fly." O'Neill is expected to rule on those issues before jury selection begins.