Bill Cosby Net Worth As Jury Selection For Sexual Assault Trial Begins

Bill Cosby appeared Monday at the Allegheny County Courthouse in downtown Pittsburgh where the beginning phases of jury selection for his upcoming sexual assault trial were set to take place.

The trial for the 79-year-old was scheduled to begin June 5 after 18 months of pretrial hearings. The jury will rule on allegations that Cosby drugged and molested Andrea Constand, a Temple University women’s basketball team manager, in 2004.

Cosby’s fall from grace has been well documented after numerous women came forward to accuse him of sexual harassment. His net worth was once estimated to be about $400 million, due in most part to syndication of “The Cosby Show,” comedy tours and other appearances, according to Forbes.

Since the sexual assault allegations, major networks and other companies have distanced themselves from the comedian.

In 2014, the Centric Network, a spinoff channel of BET Network, Bounce TV, an African-American network based in Atlanta, and TV Land all pulled their reruns of “The Cosby Show” following the accusations from more women stating that Cosby had sexually assaulted them. The reruns had been one of the main sources of Cosby’s wealth, at one point garnering $4 million per episode in syndication, according to Forbes.

Soon after reruns were pulled, Netflix killed an upcoming comedy special called “Bill Cosby 77” in 2014. NBC followed suit, nixing an upcoming sitcom.

“While over the years we’d heard some of the accusations and we heard there were a couple of settlements, it didn’t seem to be the kind of thing that was critical mass,” NBC chairman Bob Greenblatt said in 2015, explaining the decision to stop development of the show. “He hasn’t been proven guilty of anything. I don’t want to be the one who says guilty until proven innocent, [but] when that many people come out and have similar complaints and it became such a tainted situation, there was no way we could move forward.”

Numerous stops on Cosby’s “Far From Finished” comedy tour were canceled in 2015, while Disney removed a statue of the comedian and celebrities who had maintained his innocence, including Whoopi Goldberg, reversed course.

While it’s unclear just how much Cosby was worth in the days leading up to trial, it’s likely that the end of his relationship with numerous companies and networks, combined with ongoing legal fees would have made a dent in his net worth.

Cosby told a radio host last week that he hoped to clear his name and resume his career as an entertainer. Cosby pleaded not guilty to Constand’s accusations of sexual assault and claimed that his encounter with her was consensual. According to deposition documents obtained by the Associated Press, Cosby admitted to having a sexual encounter with Constand and giving her Benadryl.

“I don’t hear her say anything. And I don’t feel her say anything,” Cosby said. “And so I continue and I go into the area that is somewhere between permission and rejection. I am not stopped.”

If convicted, Cosby could face up to 10 years in prison.