{"id":61773,"date":"2018-03-30T06:30:45","date_gmt":"2018-03-30T06:30:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=61773"},"modified":"2018-03-30T06:30:45","modified_gmt":"2018-03-30T06:30:45","slug":"cosby-trial-judge-defends-wife-and-his-independence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/world-news\/cosby-trial-judge-defends-wife-and-his-independence.html","title":{"rendered":"Cosby Trial Judge Defends Wife and His Independence"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cosby Trial Judge Defends Wife and His Independence<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n
A Pennsylvania judge said on Thursday that he would not step down from Bill Cosby\u2019s sexual assault retrial, rejecting defense arguments that his wife\u2019s support of sexual assault victims had created an appearance that he could be biased in the high-profile case.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Judge Steven T. O\u2019Neill of the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas grew emotional and paused twice to compose himself as he read a statement defending his wife, Deborah V. O\u2019Neill, a therapist at a University of Pennsylvania center where she counsels students who have been sexually assaulted. He described her as an independent woman with her own views that have no relevance to his views as a judge or the retrial of the veteran entertainer.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s difficult to have her accomplishments trivialized by a partisan motion,\u201d the judge said. \u201cMy wife\u2019s personal beliefs and her professional activities are of no consequence. They do not influence me one iota.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
He rejected a defense motion in which Mr. Cosby\u2019s lawyers had argued, among other things, that the judge should recuse himself because recent rulings he had made, such as his admitting additional female accusers to testify at the trial, were evidence he had been influenced by his wife\u2019s views.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Judge O\u2019Neill called the motion \u201cuntimely\u201d because it had been made on the eve of Mr. Cosby\u2019s trial. He said Mr. Cosby\u2019s defense team in his first trial had raised the issue of his wife\u2019s activism but never formally pursued a recusal motion.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Continue reading the main story<\/span><\/div>\n
Advertisement<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Continue reading the main story<\/span><\/div>\n
Kathleen Bliss, a lawyer for Mr. Cosby, argued that the defense had received new information about Ms. O\u2019Neill\u2019s activities since the issue surfaced more than a year ago. The defense had argued that Ms. O\u2019Neill had donated \u201cmarital assets\u201d to V-Day UPenn, a campus group that gave money to another organization that plans to demonstrate outside the courthouse when the retrial begins.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cWe did not know and we could not have known that this group planned a protest,\u201d Ms. Bliss said, referring to the planned demonstration outside the courthouse. \u201cWe have a different set of circumstances here.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
But the judge dismissed that defense claim, saying that he had a University of Pennsylvania document that showed the school, not his wife, had made the donation.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Among the additional accusers who will be allowed to testify in the coming trial will be Janice Dickinson, a former supermodel who says Mr. Cosby drugged and raped her in a Nevada hotel room in 1982, according to The Associated Press.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Judge O\u2019Neill ruled several weeks ago to allow testimony from five additional women who the prosecution says will show that Mr. Cosby was engaged in a distinct pattern of sexual assault that involved providing the women with drugs or alcohol before assaulting them. That situation is similar to that described by Andrea Constand, the former Temple University employee whom Mr. Cosby is accused of molesting in 2004.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Mr. Cosby is charged only in connection with his encounter with Ms. Constand, which occurred at his home outside Philadelphia. He says it was consensual, and he has denied all other accounts of sexual abuse.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Jurors will be selected starting Monday for the new trial, which will start April 9. The jury in the first trial last summer failed to reach a verdict.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Judge O\u2019Neill said jurors would be sequestered starting the night before opening arguments, as they were in last year\u2019s trial because of the intense publicity the case has attracted.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Jurors will be selected for the retrial from Montgomery County. That is in contrast to the panel for Mr. Cosby\u2019s trial last year, when jurors were chosen from Allegheny County in western Pennsylvania because of concerns that it would hard to find an impartial jury near Mr. Cosby\u2019s hometown, Philadelphia.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Judge O\u2019Neill said the jury would be chosen from an initial pool of 170 people, and they will be questioned on their knowledge of the case and their ability to deliver an impartial verdict. He signaled lingering concerns that the high-profile case might still make it hard to find jurors who will give Mr. Cosby a fair trial on three charges of aggravated indecent assault.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cIf we find that a Montgomery County panel is unable to be fair and impartial, then we\u2019ve got a problem,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
source:-https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/03\/29\/arts\/cosby-trial-judge.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fus&mtrref=www.nytimes.com&gwh=E0565BF3A1BC3D9C064B6D8C2D5FEC20&gwt=pay<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t <\/div><\/div>\n\t\t