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Bill
Cosby
faces
2nd sex
assault
trial
after
jury
deadlocks
By MARYCLAIRE
DALE and
MICHAEL
R. SISAK
ap.org
NORRISTOWN,
Pa. -
Bill
Cosby,
the
comedian
and
actor
once
known as
"America's
Dad" for
his TV
role as
paternal
Dr.
Cliff
Huxtable,
avoided
a
conviction
on
Father's
Day
weekend
as a
jury
declared
itself
hopelessly
deadlocked
on
charges
he
drugged
and
molested
a woman
more
than a
decade
ago.
Prosecutors
found
themselves
back to
square
one
Saturday
after
the
judge
declared
a
mistrial
following
more
than 52
hours of
deliberations
over six
days.
Excoriated
by the
defense
for
charging
Cosby in
the
first
place,
District
Attorney
Kevin
Steele
vowed to
put him
on trial
a second
time,
saying
accuser
Andrea
Constand
supported
the
decision.
"She has
shown
such
courage
through
this,
and we
are in
awe of
what she
has
done,"
Steele
said.
"She's
entitled
to a
verdict
in this
case."
Cosby's
team
declared
victory,
however
temporary.
By
sowing
doubt
among
one or
more
jurors,
Cosby's
lawyers
managed
to
overcome
two
years of
unrelenting
bad
publicity
for
their
client
after
the
public
release
of his
damaging
testimony
about
drugs
and sex,
as well
as a
barrage
of
accusations
from 60
women
who came
forward
to
accuse
him of
sexual
assault.
Constand
told
jurors
Cosby
gave her
pills
that
made her
woozy
and then
penetrated
her with
his
fingers
as she
lay
paralyzed
on a
couch,
unable
to tell
him to
stop.
The 2004
encounter
at
Cosby's
suburban
Philadelphia
estate
was the
only one
to
result
in
criminal
charges.
Constand
is ready
to go to
trial
again,
said her
lawyer,
Dolores
Troiani.
"She's a
very
spiritual
woman,
she
believes
things
happen
for a
purpose,
and I
think
the
purpose
is ...
it
should
encourage
other
women to
come
forward
and have
their
day in
court."
Troiani
acknowledged
the
difficulty
of the
case,
given
the
passage
of time
and the
impact
of the
alleged
drugging
on
Constand's
ability
to
recall
details.
The jury
failed
to reach
a
unanimous
decision
on any
of the
three
counts
against
the
comedian,
ending
the
trial
without
a
verdict.
Cosby's
team
immediately
went on
the
attack.
The
entertainer's
wife of
53
years,
Camille,
slammed
prosecutors
for
bringing
the case
to
court,
calling
Steele
"heinously
and
exploitively
ambitious"
in a
statement
released
after
the
trial.
She also
criticized
the
judge,
the
accuser's
lawyers
and the
media.
"How do
I
describe
the
judge?
Overtly
arrogant,
collaborating
with the
district
attorney,"
said her
statement,
which
was
tweeted
by her
husband
and read
by an
associate
of the
public
relations
firm
representing
Cosby.
Cosby
himself
didn't
comment,
remaining
stoic as
the
judge
declared
a
mistrial,
but
Wyatt
declared
the
star's
"power
is back.
It has
been
restored."
That
seemed
debatable.
Cosby's
career
and
good-guy
image
were
already
in
tatters
by the
time his
chief
accuser
took the
witness
stand,
and the
prosecution's
decision
to
pursue a
second
trial
keeps
him in
legal
limbo.
Cosby
had
broken
barriers
as the
first
black
actor to
star in
a
network
show, "I
Spy," in
the
1960s
and, two
decades
later,
created
the
top-ranked
"Cosby
Show."
He also
found
success
with his
"Fat
Albert"
animated
TV show
and
starred
in
commercials
for
Jell-O
pudding.
But it
was
Cosby's
reputation
as a
public
moralist
who
urged
young
people
to pull
up their
saggy
pants
and
start
acting
responsibly
that
prompted
a
federal
judge to
unseal
portions
of an
explosive
deposition
he gave
more
than a
decade
ago as
part of
Constand's
civil
lawsuit
against
him.
Under
questioning
from her
lawyer,
Cosby
acknowledged
that he
had
obtained
several
prescriptions
for
quaaludes
in the
1970s
for the
purpose
of
offering
the
powerful
sedative
to women
he
wanted
to have
sex
with.
Cosby
also
said he
gave
Constand
three
half-tablets
of the
cold and
allergy
medicine
Benadryl
to help
her
relax
before
what he
insisted
was a
consensual
sexual
encounter
at his
home.
Prosecutors
suggested
he
drugged
her with
something
stronger.
The
jurors
clearly
struggled
with
their
verdict,
telling
the
judge on
Thursday
they
were at
impasse.
Judge
Steven
O'Neill
instructed
them to
keep
working
toward a
unanimous
decision.
On
Saturday,
they
came
back and
told
O'Neill
they
were
hopelessly
deadlocked.
The
judge
sought
to
comfort
the
jurors,
at least
one of
whom
fought
back
tears,
calling
their
epic
deliberation
"one of
the more
courageous
acts,
one of
the more
selfless
acts
that
I've
seen in
the
justice
system.
... I
feel bad
for all
of you,
I really
do."
He
reminded
prosecutors
and the
defense
that "a
mistrial
is
neither
vindication
nor
victory
for
anybody."
It
wasn't
immediately
known
how many
jurors
wanted
to
convict
and how
many
wanted
to
acquit.
None of
the
jurors
commented
after
the
trial
ended
and
headed
home to
the
Pittsburgh
area,
some 300
miles
(480
kilometers)
from the
courthouse
outside
Philadelphia.
Former
federal
prosecutor
David
Weinstein
said
Cosby's
celebrity
almost
certainly
played a
role in
the
jury's
deliberations,
perhaps
to
convince
"two or
three
jurors
that
it's
impossible
to
convict
Dr.
Huxtable,
to
convict
Fat
Albert
... that
he
couldn't
have
done
this
horrible
thing."
Constand,
now 44,
initially
went to
police
about a
year
after
she said
Cosby
assaulted
her, but
a
prosecutor
declared
her case
too weak
to bring
charges.
A decade
later,
another
district
attorney
reopened
the
investigation
after
his
lurid
deposition
became
public,
and
dozens
of women
came
forward
against
one of
the most
beloved
stars in
all of
show
business.
Cosby
was
charged
shortly
before
the
statute
of
limitations
was set
to
expire.
Bruce
Castor,
the
ex-prosecutor
who
passed
on
Constand's
case in
2005,
said
Saturday
that he
was
disappointed
but not
surprised
in
Steele's
failure
to win a
conviction.
"My
opinion
continues
to be
that Ms.
Constand
was
probably
the
victim
of a
sexual
assault,"
said
Castor,
whom
Constand
is suing
for
defamation.
"'Probably'
does not
win
criminal
trials."
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