A juror from the Bill Cosby trial lost his temper shortly after realizing their names were made public, telling a reporter from American Media Inc. (publisher of The National Enquirer, RadarOnline, Globe, Us Weekly, Ok! amongst others) to get lost .. or get shot.
“Get off my property,” he said, according to the gossip website RadarOnline.com. “I have a gun!”
That reaction came within hours of Judge Steven T. O’Neill’s four-page ruling, which acknowledged that state law gives the media “a qualified First Amendment right to the names of the jurors in this case.”
Pennsylvania law indicates that terroristic threats, even merely insinuating you’re going to shoot someone could carry a five year prison sentence — that would be equivalent to 1/2 of the maximum sentence per count comedian Bill Cosby faces.
“Fearing to be interviewed isn’t a defense when you threaten to shoot someone,” a Philadelphia criminal defense attorney told us. “Fearing for your life or the safety of those around you — sure. But a reporter simply knocking up? Making a terroristic threat over that is just outrageous and unheard of.”