TCNJ

15 WINTER 2018 LAUREN H. ADAMS When the seven men and five women on the jury returned after 52 hours of deliberation, they informed Judge Steven T. O'Neill that they were deadlocked and would be unable to reach a verdict. It was a non-decision, but Cosby walked out of the courtroom a free man that day — not because he had been exonerated but because he would face another jury on another day. Even though the outcome was not a final decision, it was still interesting and challenging to craft a final story that would show the drama of that day: Cosby looking stunned after the jury exited. Prosecutors vowing to retry the case. Defense lawyers expressing hope and confidence that a new jury would clear their now- infamous client. For the next six or seven hours, I sent updates, covered news conferences, and wrote a 2,000- word mistrial story. By the end of the day, I was exhausted — but felt very satisfied that I had provided the best version of what had happened, with as much color as possible. Now, the focus is on the looming retrial. Cosby is due back in court on April 2 with a new team of lawyers hoping to win an acquittal. I hope to be back too, for another opportunity to chronicle what happens to the legendary entertainer. EMILIE LOUNSBERRY is a journalism professor at TCNJ and a former Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton. Read her trial coverage at variety.com/ author/emilie-lounsberry. C OSBY — we are getting something … Stand by!!!!!" That was the email I sent to my editors at Variety at 10:06 a.m. the day the jury was set to deliver its verdict. Actor Bill Cosby was on trial, accused of sexually assaulting Andrea Constand, a former basket- ball manager at Temple University, at his home outside Philadelphia in early 2004. The case was a typical he-said-she-said prosecution, with Cosby insisting that the tryst was consensual and Constand insisting it was not. He had pleaded not guilty, opting for a jury trial in Montgomery County (Pennsylvania), the suburb where the alleged assault took place. I have always loved being in a courtroom. As a longtime reporter at The Philadelphia Inquirer, I spent plenty of time covering trials — criminal cases involving murder, rape, the mob, corruption, fraud, and even one impeachment, as well as the epic Bush v. Gore battle for the presidency in 2000. But I hadn't covered a trial since leaving the Inquirer in 2009 to join the faculty at TCNJ, so when an editor at Variety, the entertainment industry news outlet, asked me if I would write about the looming sex-assault trial of Cosby, I jumped. By 9 a.m. that first day, I was in the courtroom and ready. After so many years covering trials, I am very good at taking down accurate quotes. And with a good night's sleep and just the right amount of caeine, I can even keep up with a court stenographer for brief periods of time. I was ready when the prosecutor addressed the jury and outlined the case against the veteran entertainer, America's Dad. The work can be tedious: taking quotes from each witness and then writing and filing a story over the lunch recess, back in the courtroom for the afternoon of testimony and then updating or writing an entirely new article based on the afternoon testimony by about 7 o'clock each night. The days were even longer when the jury was considering the case because they deliberated until about 9 p.m. I was ready when the prosecutor outlined the case against the veteran entertainer, America's Dad. I was in the courtroom for two weeks of crucial testimony and during the extended jury deliber- ations, which ended early on Sat- urday, June 17. When it became clear that the trial was about to end that day, I sent urgent emails to my editors in Los Angeles and New York. I had already sent some background copy so all I had to do was send the top of the story and an editor would post the outcome online. Unlike the rest of the trial, when no cell phones were permit- ted in the courtroom and laptops were allowed only for typing notes — emailing meant risking being kicked out or held in contempt of court — reporters were now permitted to transmit over any device. "

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