PEOPLE IN THE NEWS
Cosby asks judge for outside jury
Bill Cosby was back in a Pennsylvania courtroom Monday as his legal team asked a judge to bring in outside jurors for his criminal sex assault trial. Monday’s hearing came days after the trial judge ruled that only one other accuser can testify at the scheduled June trial.
Prosecutors had asked that 13 other accusers testify to support charges that Cosby drugged and molested a former Temple University employee at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004. Investigators reopened her complaint in 2015, and it became an issue in the district attorney’s race that fall in Montgomery County.
The defense argues that jurors from another county should hear the case because of the pretrial publicity. Prosecutors don’t oppose the motion.
Montgomery Common Pleas Judge Steven O’Neill is presiding over the trial.
Nelson, Chesney, more to honor Haggard
The late country star Merle Haggard will be honored a year after his death with an all-star concert featuring his longtime friend and duet partner Willie Nelson as well as Kenny Chesney, Miranda Lambert, John Mellencamp and more.
“Sing Me Back Home: The Music of Merle Haggard” will be held in Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena on April 6, which would have been the songwriter’s 80th birthday.
Additional performers include Loretta Lynn, Hank Williams Jr., The Avett Brothers, Alison Krauss, Dierks Bentley, Ronnie Dunn, Warren Haynes, Jamey Johnson, Kacey Musgraves, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Lucinda Williams, Ben Haggard, John Anderson, Connie Smith and Bobby Bare. Tickets go on sale Friday.