Bill Cosby trial start date pushed back a few days
Bill Cosby’s retrial on sexual assault charges will be delayed a few days past its scheduled start, a Montgomery County judge ruled Monday.
The shift will allow for two additional days of pre-trial hearings, Judge Steven T. O’Neill wrote in his order. The court will hold those hearings March 29 and March 30, when jury selection had been scheduled to begin.
Jury selection will now begin in Norristown April 2, which had been set as the opening day of the trial. The jurors will come from Montgomery County.
Also Monday, O’Neill turned down a request from Cosby’s lawyers to further delay the trial. They had sought a delay to prepare for testimony from five additional women who have accused Cosby of sexual misconduct. O’Neill also denied an emergency request to appeal his decision to allow five accusers to testify.
Cosby’s first trial, which ended with a deadlocked jury in June, included testimony from just one accuser in addition to Andrea Constand, whom Cosby is charged with drugging and molesting at his home in Cheltenham in 2004.
Cosby, 80, is charged with aggravated indecent assault.
