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Bill Cosby's Next Trial Will Carry Weight Of #MeToo Movement

Matt Rourke
/
AP
Bill Cosby departs after a pretrial hearing in his sexual assault case at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pa. on Aug. 22, 2017.

Jurors couldn't agree the first time around whether to accept a woman's story that she was sexually assaulted over a decade ago by Bill Cosby.

Now he faces a retrial in less than 90 days in a vastly different cultural climate, one in which powerful men from Hollywood to the U.S. Senate are being toppled by allegations of sexual misconduct.

The shift is clearly on Cosby's mind, as he quipped to a reporter after shaking her hand: "Please don't put me on MeToo."

When asked about his April retrial on charges he drugged and molested a woman in 2004, he replied, "We're ready."

Cosby's new trial was supposed to begin in November but was delayed until this spring so his new legal team could get up to speed.

Jurors deadlocked in June and the judge declared a mistrial. He has said the encounter was consensual.

Legal experts say the seismic change in supporting victims of sexual assault will likely trickle into the Cosby retrial, slated to begin April 2.

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