Actor and comedian Bill Cosby reacts
after being notified a verdict was
in in his sexual assault retrial,
Thursday, April, 26, 2018, at the
Montgomery County Courthouse in
Norristown, Pa. A jury convicted the
"Cosby Show" star of three counts of
aggravated indecent assault on
Thursday. The guilty verdict came
less than a year after another jury
deadlocked on the charges. (Mark
Makela/Pool Photo via AP)
Bill
Cosby
convicted
of
drugging
and
molesting
a woman
By
MICHAEL
R. SISAK
and
CLAUDIA
LAUER
APNews.com
NORRISTOWN,
Pa. -
Bill
Cosby
was
convicted
Thursday
of
drugging
and
molesting
a woman
in the
first
big
celebrity
trial of
the
#MeToo
era,
completing
the
spectacular
late-in-life
downfall
of a
comedian
who
broke
racial
barriers
in
Hollywood
on his
way to
TV
superstardom
as
America’s
Dad.
Cosby,
80,
could
end up
spending
his
final
years in
prison
after a
jury
concluded
he
sexually
violated
Temple
University
employee
Andrea
Constand
at his
suburban
Philadelphia
mansion
in 2004.
The
former
TV star
stared
straight
ahead as
the
verdict
was read
but
moments
later
lashed
out
loudly
at
District
Attorney
Kevin
Steele
after
the
prosecutor
demanded
Cosby be
sent
immediately
to jail.
Steele
told the
judge
Cosby
has an
airplane
and
might
flee.
Cosby
angrily
denied
he has a
plane
and
called
Steele
an
“a--hole,”
shouting,
“I’m
sick of
him!”
The
judge
decided
Cosby
can
remain
free on
$1
million
bail
while he
awaits
sentencing
but
restricted
him to
Montgomery
County,
where
his home
is. No
sentencing
date was
set.
Cosby
waved to
the
crowd
outside
the
courthouse,
got into
an SUV
and left
without
saying
anything.
His
lawyer
Tom
Mesereau
declared
“the
fight is
not
over”
and said
he will
appeal.
Shrieks
erupted
in the
courtroom
when the
verdict
was
announced,
and some
of
Cosby’s
accusers
whimpered
and
cried.
Constand
remained
stoic,
then
hugged
her
lawyer
and
members
of the
prosecution
team.
She left
court
without
comment.
“Justice
has been
done!”
celebrity
attorney
Gloria
Allred,
who
represented
some of
Cosby’s
accusers,
said on
the
courthouse
steps.
“We are
so happy
that
finally
we can
say
women
are
believed.”
The
jury of
seven
men and
five
women
deliberated
14 hours
over two
days.
The
verdict
came
after a
two-week
retrial
in which
prosecutors
had more
courtroom
weapons
at their
disposal
than
they did
the
first
time:
They put
five
other
women on
the
stand
who
testified
that
Cosby,
married
for 54
years,
drugged
and
violated
them,
too.
At
Cosby’s
first
trial,
which
ended in
a
deadlocked
jury
less
than a
year
ago,
only one
additional
accuser
was
allowed
to
testify.
After
the
verdict,
the
district
attorney
became
teary-eyed
as he
commended
Constand
for what
he said
was
courage
in
coming
forward.
As
Constand
stood
silently
behind
him in a
bright
white
blazer,
Steele
apologized
to her
for a
previous
DA’s
decision
in 2005
not to
charge
Cosby.
Steele
said
Cosby
“was a
man who
had
evaded
this
moment
for far
too
long.”
“He
used his
celebrity,
he used
his
wealth,
he used
his
network
of
supporters
to help
him
conceal
his
crimes,”
the
district
attorney
said.
“Now, we
really
know
today
who was
really
behind
that
act, who
the real
Bill
Cosby
was.”
Cosby
could
get up
to 10
years in
prison
on each
of the
three
counts
of
aggravated
indecent
assault.
He is
likely
to get
less
than
that
under
state
sentencing
guidelines,
but
given
his age,
even a
modest
term
could
mean he
will die
behind
bars.
Constand,
45, a
former
Temple
women’s
basketball
administrator,
told
jurors
that
Cosby
knocked
her out
with
three
blue
pills he
called
“your
friends”
and then
penetrated
her with
his
fingers
as she
lay
immobilized,
unable
to
resist
or say
no.
Cosby
claimed
the
encounter
was
consensual
said he
gave her
1½ pills
of the
cold and
allergy
medicine
Benadryl
to help
her
relax.
It
was the
only
criminal
case to
arise
from a
barrage
of
allegations
from
more
than 60
women
who said
the
former
TV star
drugged
and
molested
them
over a
span of
five
decades.
The
onslaught
all but
destroyed
his
career
and his
good-guy
image as
wisdom-dispensing,
sweater-wearing
Dr.
Cliff
Huxtable
on “The
Cosby
Show.”
The
business
fallout
from the
verdict
was
almost
immediate:
Bounce,
a TV
network
that
caters
to black
viewers,
announced
it would
drop
reruns
of “The
Cosby
Show.”
Cosby’s
retrial
took
place
against
the
backdrop
of
#MeToo,
the
movement
against
sexual
misconduct
that has
taken
down
powerful
men in
rapid
succession,
among
them
Harvey
Weinstein,
Matt
Lauer,
Kevin
Spacey
and Sen.
Al
Franken.
During
closing
arguments,
Cosby’s
lawyers
slammed
#MeToo,
calling
Cosby
its
victim
and
likening
it to a
witch
hunt or
a
lynching.
Cosby’s
new
defense
team,
led by
Mesereau,
the
celebrity
attorney
who won
an
acquittal
for
Michael
Jackson
on
child-molestation
charges,
launched
a highly
aggressive
attack
on
Constand,
calling
her a
“con
artist”
and
“pathological
liar”
who
framed
Cosby to
get
rich.
Constand
sued
Cosby
after
prosecutors
initially
declined
to file
charges,
settling
with him
for
nearly
$3.4
million
over a
decade
ago.
The
star
witness
for the
defense
was
Marguerite
Jackson,
Temple
employee
who
testified
that
Constand
once
spoke of
setting
up a
prominent
person
and
suing.
Cosby’s
defense
team
derided
the
other
accusers
as
home-wreckers
and
suggested
they
made up
their
stories
in a bid
for
money
and
fame.
But
Cosby
himself
had long
ago
confirmed
sordid
revelations
about
drugs
and
extramarital
sex.
In a
deposition
he gave
over a
decade
ago as
part of
Constand’s
lawsuit,
Cosby
acknowledged
he had
obtained
quaaludes
to give
to women
he
wanted
to have
sex
with,
“the
same as
a person
would
say,
‘Have a
drink.’”
The
sedative
was a
popular
party
drug
before
the U.S.
banned
it more
than 30
years
ago.
The
entertainer
broke
racial
barriers
as the
first
black
actor to
star in
a
network
show, “I
Spy,” in
the
1960s.
He
created
the
top-ranked
“Cosby
Show”
two
decades
later.
He also
found
success
with his
“Fat
Albert”
animated
TV show
and
served
as
pitchman
for
Jello-O
pudding.
Later in
his
career,
he
attracted
controversy
for
lecturing
about
social
dysfunction
in poor
black
neighborhoods,
railing
against
young
people
stealing
things
and
wearing
baggy
pants.
It
was
Cosby’s
reputation
as a
public
moralist
that
prompted
a
federal
judge,
acting
on a
request
from The
Associated
Press,
to
unseal
portions
of the
deposition.
Its
release
in 2015
set
Cosby’s
downfall
in
motion,
prompting
authorities
to
reopen
the
criminal
investigation
and
bring
charges.
The
Associated
Press
does not
typically
identify
people
who say
they are
victims
of
sexual
assault
unless
they
grant
permission.
Constand
has done
so.