NORRISTOWN >> The Montgomery County judge who presided over the Bill Cosby sexual assault trial took under advisement a request by media outlets to release the identities of the jurors who deadlocked in their deliberations.
“I do believe we’re in a unique place,” Judge Steven T. O’Neill said Tuesday, addressing lawyers for several media companies that are seeking the release of the jurors’ names.
O’Neill said he understands the media’s interest in the jurors’ identities but he added he has an obligation to prosecutors and Cosby’s defense team to ensure that a fair and impartial retrial can be had.
The judge indicated he will issue a ruling on the request sometime Wednesday.
On Monday, District Attorney Kevin R. Steele filed court papers asking the judge to “respect the privacy of those that have served on a jury” by not releasing the jurors’ names. Steele, who immediately after a mistrial was declared on Saturday vowed to retry Cosby, argued there is a substantial probability that the rights of the parties to a fair trial will be negatively impacted by the release of the names of the jurors.
“If the press saturates the nationwide media market with stories about jury deliberations, including juror opinions about the evidence, it may make the parties’ ability to select a fair and impartial jury more difficult,” Steele wrote in court papers. “The qualified right to juror names was intended to promote fairness and impartiality in the justice system, not undermine it.”
Steele argued on Tuesday that although jurors may choose to come forward to the media of their own volition that should be their choice.
“But I do believe there is some fundamental rights to privacy that people do have,” Steele addressed the judge.
In court papers Steele argued the media seeks to ask the discharged jurors questions about information that the judge has already deemed confidential, such as discussions that occurred in the jury deliberation room.
“Indeed, if the press descend upon the discharged jurors, this publicity onslaught may have a chilling effect on future jurors in this remarkably high-profile case,” Steele wrote. “A juror should feel free to find the facts based on the evidence and apply the law to those facts without fear of intensive second-guessing by the press.”
Brian J. McMonagle, Cosby’s defense lawyer, wrote a letter to the judge joining prosecutors in the fight to keep the jurors’ names private.
But the Philadelphia Media Network, publishers of the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News, sought the public release of the jurors’ names and was joined by other media outlets, including ABC Inc., CNN, The New York Times and the Washington Post.
The news outlets argued the First Amendment provides a qualified right of access to jurors’ names.
“We’re entitled to them. They played a critical role in this case,” said Eli Segal, an attorney representing some of the media outlets.
Segal suggested the jurors could be questioned about their personal views on the evidence they heard or about the sequestration and jury systems.
“It’s a civics lesson for all of us,” said Segal, who was joined in court by Paul J. Safier, a lawyer representing additional media outlets who joined in the request to release the jurors’ identities.
There are no “specific countervailing interests strong enough to overcome this constitutional right of access,” the lawyers for the news outlets wrote in court papers.
On Saturday, O’Neill declared a mistrial after the seven men and five women on the jury individually told the judge they were hopelessly deadlocked “on all counts” after deliberating more than 52 hours over six days. Cosby, 79, is charged with three felony counts of aggravated indecent assault in connection with allegations he drugged and sexually assaulted Andrea Constand, the former director of women’s basketball operations at Temple University, at his Cheltenham mansion in mid-January 2004.
Steele immediately informed the judge he would retry Cosby. A retrial could occur within about 120 days.
The jurors, who were selected from the Pittsburgh area, were transported back to their homes in Allegheny County on Saturday evening.
The 11-day trial was expected to come at a high cost for the county. Final cost figures for overtime for sheriff’s deputies and court employees and for the sequestration of the jury were not yet available on Tuesday, according to county officials.
