NORRISTOWN, Pa. _ It's the same courthouse, the same accuser, the same defendant. But much has changed since Bill Cosby's sexual assault case resulted in a mistrial nearly a year ago.
Monday's opening statements in the comedian's retrial in a Pennsylvania court were expected to hinge on the question of whether what happened between Cosby and Andrea Constand one night in 2004 amounted to a consensual sexual encounter, or a trusted mentor's attack on a helpless, drugged woman.
In the initial 11-day trial, which ended in June 2017, jurors were unable to reach a verdict. In the intervening months, the #MeToo movement ignited, seeking to hold to account scores of powerful men accused of sexual assault or harassment.
In that vein, a topless protester with "Women's Lives Matter" written on her body in red ink charged at Cosby on Monday morning as he walked into the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, a Philadelphia suburb, for the start of his sexual assault retrial.
The woman, among about half a dozen people chanting in support of Cosby's accuser, jumped over a barricade and lunged toward Cosby but was intercepted by sheriff's deputies. The woman, identified as Nicolle Rochelle, 39, of Little Falls, N.J., was led away in handcuffs and charged with disorderly conduct. Cosby seemed startled but physically unscathed.
The retrial of the 80-year-old comedian, once a beloved American icon, marks for many a dizzying reassessment of a performer with a long career including his portrayal of a wise and benevolent family man, Dr. Cliff Huxtable, on "The Cosby Show."
A jury made up of seven men and five women _ 10 white, two black _ was impaneled to hear the case. In his retrial, Cosby faces three counts of aggravated indecent assault stemming from a 2004 encounter at his home with Constand, a 44-year-old former basketball staffer at Temple University in Philadelphia.
Constand also brought a civil motion against Cosby, which was confidentially settled in 2006.
In the earlier trial, Constand testified that on the night in question, she was left unable to move after taking pills that Cosby administered, and that the comedian then assaulted her, touching her breasts and digitally penetrating her. "I tried to get my hands to move, or my legs to move, but I was frozen," she said then on the witness stand.
Cosby has said he believed the encounter was a romantic one.
In recent years, dozens of women have come forward with similar accounts of being drugged and sexually molested by Cosby, describing serial misconduct dating back to at least the 1980s. Cosby's defense team _ led by Los Angeles attorney Tom Mesereau, who defended Michael Jackson on child molestation charges _ fought to exclude testimony by other alleged victims, saying their testimony would be unfairly prejudicial.
The defense also argued that lawyers could not properly prepare for cross-examination of witnesses who were testifying about incidents alleged to have taken place many years earlier.
Of the 19 women the prosecution sought to call, the judge set the number at five. The best-known of those expected to testify is ex-model Janice Dickinson, who has alleged a 1982 drugging and sexual assault by Cosby that took place at Lake Tahoe.
Opening statements in the trial were delayed as the judge spent the morning holding a hearing in chambers to determine whether a selected juror's overheard remarks indicated he could not be impartial, or whether his alleged comments might have affected other jurors. Another juror, who was not selected to serve, had reported late last week that the man was heard expressing the opinion that Cosby was guilty.
If convicted, Cosby could spend the rest of his life in prison. The judge has said the retrial could take up to a month.
