Entertainer Bill Cosby raises his fist as he leaves the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pennsylvania, June 17, 2017, after a mistrial was announced in the trial against him.

Tracie Van Auken / EPA</s>Just after 10 a.m. today, the Bill Cosby sexual assault case ended in a mistrial. The long-awaited announcement was delivered to a packed gallery at the Montgomery County Courthouse just outside of Philadelphia. The jury announced it was hopelessly deadlocked on all of the three felony indecent sexual assault counts. 

 

It’s neither vindication nor victory, said the judge, who polled each jury member about the deadlock. They were all in agreement that they could not successfully reach a unanimous verdict. As such, defense moved for a mistrial, which was accepted. 

 

The judge credited the jury with “one of the most courageous acts” he has seen in the justice system. “I will forever hold you dear in my heart,” he told them. 

 

As the mistrial was announced, the 79-year-old comedian appeared calm beside his lawyers. There was little reaction in the courtroom. 

 

It had been a grueling week since the jurors began deliberating late Monday. Press, public and Cosby’s accusers and supporters have waited for sometimes 12-hour days at the courthouse for any sign that news was forthcoming. All told, the jury deliberated for 52 hours on the case. 

 

Throughout the high-profile trial, 13 witnesses testified, including Andrea Constand, the former sports director at Temple University who has accused Cosby of drugging and sexually assaulting her in his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004. Constand spent seven hours being grilled on the stand. Cosby, who continued to deny the allegations throughout the case, never testified in his own defense. 

 

As the jury deliberated, announcing days ago that they were deadlocked, Cosby’s legal team filed several motions for mistrial that were overruled by the judge. By late Friday night it was unclear if deliberations might proceed into next week or whether the trial would end in a hung jury. 

 

What happens next is up to the Montgomery County D.A.’s Office. Prosecutors will decide whether to retry the case. If a new trial is called, the TV star could face up to 10 years on each of the guilty charges pending, with fines of up to $25,000 each. He also faces an upcoming civil suit later this month in California. Cosby is accused of raping a 15-year-old girl at the Playboy mansion in 1974.</s>Bill Cosby's trial on sexual assault charges has ended without a verdict after jurors failed to break a deadlock. day.

Bill Cosby's trial on sexual assault charges has ended without a verdict after jurors failed to break a deadlock. day.

Deliberations in Bill Cosby's sex assault trial are pushing into Father's Day weekend after jurors failed to reach a verdict in the first five days.

Deliberations in Bill Cosby's sex assault trial are pushing into Father's Day weekend after jurors failed to reach a verdict in the first five days.

(RNN) - The judge in Bill Cosby's sexual assault case declared a mistrial Saturday morning after the jury indicated it could not reach a verdict.

Cosby was facing three charges of aggravated and indecent assault. The jury was deadlocked on all three charges.

The judge asked each member of jury if it was "hopelessly deadlocked" and they all indicated it was, and that further deliberation would not result in a unanimous verdict.

A mistrial does not mean the case is over. Cosby can be tried on the same charges again with a new jury, and the prosecution has indicated it will try the case again.

District Attorney Kevin Steele said the case is important, and he plans to see it through to a resolution.

"Moving forward with this case sends a strong message that victims of these types of crimes can come forward," Steele said. "(Andrea Constand) is entitled to a verdict in this case."

Attorneys for Cosby celebrated the verdict and declared Cosby's innocence. A signed statement was read from Cosby's wife, Camille Cosby, criticizing the prosecuting attorney, the court proceedings, the judge and the trial's media coverage.

"Juries are stuck when a prosecutor tries to put someone in prison, when they try to present things that are not presented in a courtroom," Andrew Wyatt, Cosby's publicist, said.

Wyatt also told Gloria Allred, who represents some of Cosby's accusers, to go back to law school.

Cosby himself did not speak.

Allred spoke shortly after the mistrial was announced and said Cosby's celebrity status overshadowed the seriousness of the charges against him.

"We can never underestimate the blinding power of celebrity," Allred said. "But justice will come. I hope that the prosecution will try this case again, and the next time the court will permit more prior bad act witness to testify as the prosecution had requested for this trial."

The decision came after a previous failure by the jury to reach a decision.

The jury deliberated for more than 30 hours before telling the judge Thursday that they were deadlocked. Cosby's attorney immediately motioned for a mistrial, which Judge Michael O'Neill denied.

The judge then ordered the jurors to try again to reach a decision.

O'Neill reminded the jurors that they had a duty to return a verdict, but added they were not compelled to surrender their heartfelt beliefs just to end the long, arduous trial.

On Friday, the jury asked the court to clarify what is reasonable doubt, leaving signs of a possible deadlock.

The judge previously denied multiple requests by the defense to declare a mistrial.

Cosby had spoken to reporters during the deliberation thanking the jurors for their dedication and long hours, and thanking supporters who had gathered outside the courtroom. He urged the supporters to not argue with anyone but to maintain calm support for him.

The jury has been sequestered, and so were not aware of Cosby's comments.

Although more than 60 accusers came forward, one incident in 2004 was brought to trial. Andrea Constand said Cosby drugged her after talking about relaxation techniques. According to a police interview from 2005, Cosby gave Constand 1 1/2 Benadryl to relax.

The 6-foot-tall woman, who worked as a basketball staffer at Temple University, where Cosby was a trustee, says she was unable to fight off Cosby as he went into her pants.

The comedian did not take the stand in the course of the trial because it would have opened the door to state attorneys to call in other accusers as witnesses to challenge his testimony and question whether he denies drugging or molesting anyone.

He did, however, give thumbs-up as a court reporter reread the 2005 interview.

The jury did hear from Cosby in the form of recordings from a civil trial Constand brought in 2005. Authorities refused to charge Cosby then, but other women began coming forward with the same claim.

A viral video from stand-up comic Hannibal Buress in 2014 started the inquiry into rumors and allegations of Cosby's having drugged and raped women. At the time, Cosby was a beloved comedian, entertainer and TV personality who was regarded as an upstanding family man.

Buress called Cosby a hypocrite for his criticism of black culture and other black comedians while allegedly raping women. (WARNING: Video contains profanity.)

The routine's popularity began the corruption of Cosby's public persona from a fatherly figure and respected celebrity to a man accused of sexual assault by dozens of women.

Cosby vehemently denied the claims, though he admitted in a 2005 deposition that he acquired Quaaludes, a heavy sedative, with the intent of giving them to women before sex. However, he said he never used them.

Statutes of limitations prevented criminal charges for most of the alleged crimes, which dated back as far as the 1970s, but in many ways, the damage was already done.

The accusations sank a planned TV comeback and several projects in the works, and cable network TV Land stopped showing reruns of The Cosby Show. Many organizations cut ties with Cosby, including his alma mater Temple University, where his career started. The U.S. Navy, in which Cosby served four years, stripped him of his title of honorary chief petty officer.

William Henry Cosby Jr. was born July 12, 1937, and grew up in a struggling family in Philadelphia. Part of the family's problems were a result of drunkenness by his father, a steelworker. His mother, Anna, cleaned houses to help the family survive.

Cosby began taking odd jobs as a youngster to help out financially, eventually dropping out of high school to join the Navy in 1956. However, he earned a G.E.D. and later attended Temple University in Philadelphia on a track scholarship.

It was there Cosby realized his exceptional talent at making people laugh, and he began telling jokes at a bar in 1961 to pick up quick money. He left school to take a job as a regular comedian at the Gaslight Cafe in New York City.

The New York Times recognized his talent early on and profiled him. It didn't take long for other publications, critics and the public to agree. Cosby's first comedy album, titled Bill Cosby is a Very Funny Fellow… Right!, was released in 1963. It began a quick rise that continued virtually uninterrupted for the next six decades. His first Grammy Award came for the 1964 comedy recording I Started Out As a Child.

He became known for clean comedy, refusing to use profane language and focusing heavily on his family life. His exaggerated speaking style became one of his most recognizable performance traits.

One thing Cosby was not known for, however, was controversy. That was until sexual assault claims that had been rumored for many years came to the surface in October 2014. Comedian Hannibal Buress was performing in Philadelphia, and the act took a sudden turn when he referred to the comedy icon as a rapist. Voicing frustration that Cosby talked down to other comedians for not cleaning up their acts, Buress pointed the audience's attention to several accusations from women in years past.

It opened the floodgates for dozens of accusations.

Such claims were nothing new for comedy star. A prosecutor had decided not to press charges against Cosby in 2004 after Constand accused him of drugging and fondling her at his Pennsylvania home. Cosby, 67 at the time, acknowledged having sex with the then-31-year-old woman but said it was consensual, and both parties reached a financial settlement in a civil suit the next year.

But new allegations surfaced after a video of Burress' routine with the harsh accusations went viral. What started with just a few women rapidly grew to include dozens of claims that Cosby, who has been married to his wife Camille since 1964, had used drugs or alcohol to impair women and violate them.

One woman, Judy Huth, filed a suit against Cosby on Dec. 2, 2014 for an alleged incident in the 1970s at the Playboy mansion when she was 15 years old. The case bypassed the statute of limitations because of a California law that allows victims of sexual abuse and assault to sue if they suffer psychological injuries later in life.

Cosby's lawyers filed a countersuit, saying the woman had tried to extort him for hush money a month earlier, first for $100,000 and then bumping the amount to $250,000. His representatives also claimed Huth tried to sell her story to tabloids a decade earlier, negating the law's requirement that claims of psychological damage are filed within three years. Required certification from a psychologist also was not included in Huth's filing, according to Cosby's lawyers.

A discredited charge of marital infidelity surfaced in 1997 when a woman who claimed to be his illegitimate daughter was accused of extortion. Autumn Jackson was arrested and charged with trying to extort $40 million from the entertainer after claiming he had fathered her out of wedlock. During testimony at the trial, Cosby admitted to the affair, but Jackson refused a paternity test. She was convicted, along with her husband and another man, and sentenced to serve 26 months in prison.

The extortion attempt came within hours of the death of Cosby's only son, Ennis. The 27-year-old was driving through California when he got out to fix a flat tire. A Ukrainian national robbed and shot Cosby in the back of the head. The killer was sentenced to life in prison the following year.

More family turmoil came in the form of a public, bitter conflict with his daughter, Erinn, who battled drug addiction. In addition to Ennis and Erinn, Cosby also had three other daughters - Ensa, Evin and Erika.

Cosby is most often associated with his hit NBC program The Cosby Show, which dominated primetime TV ratings during its run from 1984 through 1992 and opened the way for other shows with predominately black casts.

Though he starred in a career-defining sitcom that is generally regarded as one of the best situation comedies of all time, Cosby never won an Emmy for his role as Dr. Heathcliff Huxtable, a man who became known as "America's Dad." He did, however, win two Golden Globes.

Before the show, he had already been an established stage and screen star for several decades, building up an acclaimed body of work. He won primetime Emmys for each of the three seasons I Spy was on the air, 1965 through 1968. It was the first primetime U.S. television drama featuring a black leading actor.

He won another primetime Emmy for a TV comedy special he did in 1969 and won two Daytime Emmys for the cartoon shows Little Bill and Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids.

When Cosby returned to school and earned a doctorate in education from the University of Massachusetts in 1976, Fat Albert was the source of a dissertation focused on racism in America.

His comedy albums earned Cosby nine Grammys. He was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1998 and an honor from the Kennedy Center in 2002.

He was also well-known as the spokesman for Jell-O from 1974 through 1999, producing a series of exuberant and often imitated TV commercials.</s>Almost 24 hours after the jury in Bill Cosby's criminal trial told the judge that they were deadlocked, they are set to return to court for the fifth straight day to deliberate whether the comedian is guilty of drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand in 2004.

If they are unable to reach a unanimous verdict on any of the three counts, the judge could declare a mistrial.

In that case, the Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, district attorney could choose to retry the case, but it's unlikely that prosecutors would move immediately for an retrial, according to a spokeswoman for the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office.

Cosby, 79, has been charged with three counts of aggravated indecent assault, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $25,000 fine. The comedian has pleaded not guilty and has repeatedly denied allegations of wrongdoing.

Cosby has claimed that more than a decade ago, he gave Benadryl to Constand to help her relax before a consensual sexual encounter. By contrast, Constand has accused Cosby of giving her pills that incapacitated her and rendered her unable to stop his advances, though she said she tried.

"In my head I was trying to get my hands to move or my legs to move, but I was frozen and those [mental] messages didn't get there and I was very limp, so I wasn't able to fight him anyway," she testified last week. "I wanted it to stop."

Since the prosecution and defense teams rested their cases last Friday and Monday respectively, the jury has revisited several moments from the trial, including quotes from Cosby's deposition about his encounter with Constand and Constand's original police report to police in Canada in January 2005.

They also asked for clarity around the language of count three, which pertains to whether Cosby administered "drugs, intoxicants or other means for the purpose of preventing resistance" without Constand's knowledge, as well as clarification about Constand's testimony about the alleged attack and read-backs of police testimony about Cosby's 2005 interview with police.</s>NORRISTOWN — The judge in the Bill Cosby trial declared a mistrial Saturday after the jury failed to reach a verdict in the case. The jurors — five women and seven men — were unable to come to a unanimous decision in a courtroom battle closely watched by the public as well as dozens of women who have accused Cosby of similar misconduct in the past. Cosby faced three charges of aggravated indecent assault.

“We’ve been at this now for 10 days (including testimony). There has been nothing but a supreme effort on your part,” Judge Steven O’Neill told the jury on Friday.

“Go through your routines, which have probably become very habitualized at this point.”

As the 79-year comedian exited the courthouse Friday, he talked to the cameras and crowds outside. “I just want to wish all of the fathers a Happy Father’s Day and I want to thank all of the jury for their long days, their honest work individually,” Cosby said.

He said, “I also want to thank the supporters who’ve been here and please to the supporters, stay calm, do not argue with people, just keep up the great support. Thank you all. Thank you.”

In all, jurors have asked 12 questions of the court during deliberations, essentially asking to hear the evidence for a second time. The jury’s continued questions leave open the possibility that jurors may remain deadlocked and unable to reach a unanimous verdict on any of the three counts of aggravated indecent assault that Cosby faces.

One of the questions from Friday was: “What is reasonable doubt?”

Prosecutors say Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted Andrea Constand, the former director of operations for Temple University’s women’s basketball team, at his home near Philadelphia in January 2004. Cosby pleaded not guilty to the charges.

On Thursday, jurors told the court they could not come to a unanimous decision beyond a reasonable doubt, which is required in criminal cases.

O’Neill asked the jury to go back into deliberations for another attempt to reach a verdict, an instruction known in Pennsylvania as the Spencer Charge. It’s a set of instructions that asks jurors to re-examine their own views and opinions, and there is no limit to how many times a judge can issue it.

If, after further deliberations, jurors still cannot reach consensus, the judge can choose to declare a mistrial. Defense attorneys have repeatedly asked for O’Neill to declare a mistrial based on the jury’s length of deliberations, but the judge has denied their request.

“I’m going to allow this to go as long as this jury wishes to continue to deliberate,” O’Neill said Friday.

If there is a mistrial, Cosby would not be considered guilty or not guilty, and prosecutors may choose to retry the case with a different set of jurors. Still, that would represent a major win for Cosby’s team, which has argued the case never should have reached court.

The jury is made up of four white women, six white men, one black woman and one black man. They were bused to Norristown from Allegheny County near Pittsburgh and have been sequestered in a hotel for the trial.

He said, she said

The three charges accuse Cosby of assaulting Constand without her consent, assaulting her when she was unconscious and assaulting her using drugs to impair her ability to consent. If found guilty, he could face up to 10 years in prison for each charge.

Prosecutors called 12 witnesses, including Constand, over a week of testimony but presented almost no forensic evidence. Cosby declined to testify in his own defense, and his attorneys called only one witness. Cosby’s attorneys argued the sexual contact was consensual and worked to highlight inconsistencies in Constand’s testimony on cross-examination.

Legal experts said the trial fits the “he said, she said” arguments that are common in sexual offense cases.

Constand herself did not appear stressed in the courtroom as she waited for the jury. The former basketball player posted a video to Twitter of herself shooting hoops on a mini-backboard to pass the time.

Though dozens of women have accused Cosby of sexual misconduct, only Constand’s accusations led to criminal charges. One other accuser, Kelly Johnson, testified during the trial as prosecutors sought to establish that Cosby had a pattern of assault. Johnson testified that she was drugged and assaulted by Cosby in 1996.

Constand testified over two days last week for the prosecution. In clear and firm statements, she said Cosby, a powerful Temple alumnus, mentored her and took an interest in her career like a father figure. The comedian, 37 years her elder, twice made what she called “suggestive” passes at her, but she rebuffed him, she said.

But when speaking about her career plans one night at his home, the sweater-wearing actor known as “America’s Dad” gave her three blue pills that he said were herbal and would help her relax, she testified.

“Put them down, they’re your friends. They’ll take the edge off,” Cosby told her, she testified. “I said ‘I trust you.’ I took the pills and I swallowed the pills down.”

She began slurring her words and felt dizzy, and told Cosby so, she said. Shortly after, she became incapacitated and felt “frozen,” she testified. Cosby then placed her on the couch and sexually assaulted her without her consent, she said.

She woke up on the couch early in the morning with her clothes disheveled, she said.

“I felt really humiliated and I was really confused,” she said through tears. “I just wanted to go home.”

Cosby lowered and shook his head in the courtroom as she spoke.

Gianna Constand, the accuser’s fiercely protective mother, testified that Cosby apologized over the phone to her and her daughter and offered to pay for her schooling. Cosby also declined to tell her what pills he had given Andrea Constand, but he did say they were from a prescription bottle, she testified.

Defense attorneys argued that the sexual contact was part of a consenting relationship between Cosby and Constand. They cast Cosby as an unfaithful husband — but not a criminal.

In a tense cross-examination, defense attorneys pointed out that several of Constand’s initial statements to police, including the date of the alleged assault, were later proved to be false.

“I was really nervous and wasn’t able to recall every particular moment that I had seen Mr. Cosby in order of dates,” she explained.

In addition, Constand initially told police that she had not been alone with Cosby prior to the alleged assault and that they had little contact after. However, she testified that she had been alone in a hotel room with Cosby beforehand, and that there were 72 calls between the two afterward.

She also asked Cosby’s representatives for free tickets for her and her family to see Cosby’s stand-up show in Toronto in August, half a year after the alleged assault.

But she said the hotel room meeting was not romantic, and explained that she made those phone calls as part of her job responsibility at Temple. She got the show tickets because her family loved Cosby, and she hadn’t yet told them about the alleged assault, she said.

Defense attorneys said those were not the actions of a sexual assault victim and suggested she was lying.

“I was mistaken,” she said. “It was a lot of confusion putting a lot of dates together.”

Jurors did hear Cosby’s side of the story — but not in his voice. Prosecutors and police detectives read aloud portions of Cosby’s statements to police in 2005 and in a civil deposition in 2006. In those interviews, Cosby admitted to sexual contact with Constand and said they had previously had a romantic encounter.

He also said the pills he gave her were over-the-counter Benadryl, which he admitted can cause sleepiness.

In the civil deposition, Cosby admitted that he had previously obtained prescriptions for Quaaludes, a powerful sedative, with the intention of giving the drugs to women with whom he wanted to have sex.

Prosecutors say his prior use of Quaaludes shows that Cosby had knowledge of what he was doing when he gave her the pills.

How we got here

Constand initially told police about the alleged assault in January 2005, a year after she says it took place. The district attorney at the time declined to press charges, citing insufficient evidence. She sued Cosby in a civil suit and settled for an undisclosed amount in 2006.

In late 2014, dozens of women went public with accusations that Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted them over the course of his lengthy comedic career.

In July 2015, a judge unsealed Cosby’s deposition in that 2006 civil lawsuit. Cosby’s admissions in that deposition led Montgomery County prosecutors to file charges against him.

The trial started June 5. Cosby, who is legally blind and carries a cane, has arrived in court each day with someone from the world of entertainment. Keshia Knight Pulliam, who played Rudy Huxtable on “The Cosby Show,” escorted Cosby into court on the first day of the trial.

His wife, Camille, walked into court with him Monday, her first appearance at the trial.</s>(Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Pool Photo via AP). Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele, right, Montgomery County Assistant District Attorney Kristen, center, and Bill Cosby's defense attorney Angela Agrusa enter the courtroom during jury deliberat...

(Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Pool Photo via AP). Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele, center, and Montgomery County Assistant District Attorney Kristen, left, enter the courtroom during jury deliberations in Bill Cosy's sexual assault trial at t...

(Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Pool Photo via AP). Andrea Constand, right, returns to the courtroom at the Montgomery County Courthouse during Bill Cosby's sexual assault trial Thursday, June 15, 2017, in Norristown, Pa. Cosby is accused of drugging and sexual...

(AP Photo/Matt Slocum). Bill Cosby shakes hands with his lawyer Brian McMonagle as they leave the Montgomery County Courthouse during Cosby's sexual assault trial, Thursday, June 15, 2017, in Norristown, Pa.

(AP Photo/Matt Slocum). Bill Cosby leaves the Montgomery County Courthouse during his sexual assault trial, Thursday, June 15, 2017, in Norristown, Pa.

NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) - A new round of deliberations is raising the prospects that Bill Cosby's sexual assault trial will end with a verdict instead of a hung jury.

Jurors who have appeared stressed and even angry seemed more upbeat as they left court outside Philadelphia Thursday night than on previous nights, despite enduring another marathon session.

The sequestered jurors had deliberated about 30 hours before telling Judge Steven O'Neill earlier Thursday that they couldn't reach a unanimous decision on any of the counts against the 79-year-old comedian. The judge told them to try again for a verdict.

As the jurors left for the day, O'Neill heaped praise on them, thanking them for their dedication and the sacrifice they've made being 300 miles (482 kilometers) from home in the Pittsburgh area.

"I want to reiterate how proud I am of each and every one of you," O'Neill said as he sent the jury back to the hotel. "I thank you from the bottom of my heart for everything that you've done."

They will get back to it Friday morning.

Cosby is charged with three felony counts of aggravated indecent assault stemming from Andrea Constand's allegations that he drugged and violated her at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004.

Each count carries a maximum 10-year prison term, though the counts could be merged at sentencing if Cosby is convicted.

Cosby's lawyer said he and Constand were lovers sharing a consensual moment of intimacy.

The jury of seven men and five women have deliberated for nearly 40 hours since getting the case Monday.

Cosby's spokesman said the impasse showed that jurors doubted Constand's story.

"They're conflicted about the inconsistencies in Ms. Constand's testimony," spokesman Andrew Wyatt said. "And they're hearing Mr. C.'s testimony, and he's extremely truthful. And that's created this doubt."

Constand's lawyer, Dolores Troiani, said only that the "jury is apparently working very hard." The district attorney's office declined to comment.

Dozens of women have come forward to say Cosby had drugged and assaulted them, but this was the only case to result in criminal charges.

The jury must come to a unanimous decision to convict or acquit. If the panel can't break the deadlock, the judge could declare a hung jury and a mistrial. In that case, prosecutors would get four months to decide whether they want to retry the TV star or drop the charges.

The case has already helped demolish his image as America's Dad, cultivated during his eight-year run as kindly Dr. Cliff Huxtable on the top-rated "The Cosby Show" in the 1980s and '90s.

The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they grant permission, which Constand has done.

For more on Cosby, including trial updates, historical photos, videos and an audio series exploring the case, visit http://www.apnews.com/tag/CosbyonTrial.

Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</s>After the jury reached a deadlock decision after deliberating for 52 straight hours, Montgomery County Judge Steven O'Neill asked the jurors to resume the deliberation for Bill Cosby's sexual assault trial on Saturday morning to finally reach a verdict.

Reuters / Lucas JacksonActor-comedian Bill Cosby on his way to the deliberation of his sexual assault case at the Montgomery County Courthouse

On Friday, O'Neill stated that he will allow the jury to take as much time as they want to carefully look through all the facts of the case to be able to resolve the deadlock that resulted during the deliberation last Thursday, June 15.

According to reports, the judge could possibly declare a mistrial and a hung jury if the jurors are not able to break the deadlock. If that happens, the prosecutors will have four months to evaluate if they still want to file another case against the 79-year-old comedian or drop the charges completely.

During the deliberation on Friday, June 16, the jurors reportedly asked the judge if they can get a clear definition of "reasonable doubt." They also want to hear Cosby's testimony where he talked about giving Quaalude pills to women who will have sex with him back in the 1970s, as well as the testimony of Gianna Constand, the mother of complainant Andrea Constand, where he reportedly talked about his sexual encounter with her daughter in a phone call in 2005. The comedian reportedly called himself a "sick man" and apologized during their conversation.

The jury also wants to look into Andrea Constand's testimony regarding the phone records proving that she and Cosby were still talking after the reported assault, as well as the testimony of her brother-in-law who works as a police officer.

This means the jurors will have to go back to the past evidence in order to finally make a decision regarding the verdict on Cosby's case.

The deliberation will resume on Saturday, July 17, at 9 a.m. EDT.</s>(UPDATED WITH D.A. ANNOUNCEMENT) A mistrial has been declared today in Bill Cosby’s criminal trial for the 2004 rape of Andrea Constand. The decision has for now spared the once-beloved actor from a potential decade behind bars, and comes at the end of over 50 hours of deliberation by the jury in Norristown, PA, which first went to Judge Steven O’Neill on June 15 to say it was deadlocked – at that time he told them to “try again,” which they’ve done for the past two days.

After just over an hour of deliberations on Saturday, the jurors informed the court that they were still “hopelessly deadlocked” on all the charges.

“After 52 hours of deliberation, probably one of the most courageous acts I’ve ever seen, I’m compelled to grant a mistrial,” said Judge O’Neill to the packed courtroom. Constand and several police officers who worked on the case were in the courtroom when the mistrial was announced today, as was Bill Cosby.

Not that this is all over for the 79-year old Cosby – at least not yet. Within minutes of the mistrial being declared, the Montgomery County District Attorney’s office announced in court and online that they will retry the case.

The decision by O’Neill to end the legal purgatory could see D.A. Kevin Steele’s office seek an entirely new trial before the end of summer. Steele has four months to decide how he wants to pursue a new trial with a new jury for the current three felony charges of second-degree aggravated indecent assault or new ones. On June 16 in court, after a question from the jury, O’Neill made sure that Cosby understood he could be tried again if a mistrial was declared – the actor said he understood.

With that, D.A. Steele will likely want to find out what exactly led to the hung jury of seven men and five women. Even after saying he will seek a retrial, the D.A. could still also decide that another kick at the case in the Philadelphia suburb could result in a similar outcome or even a not guilty verdict, and withdraw the charges for good.

Either way, today’s mistrial doesn’t come as a total surprise. After hours locked away debating the merits of the case, the wind was blowing in that direction earlier on June 15 after the jury announced that morning it was in judicial gridlock over the charges that Cosby allegedly raped the then-Temple University employee in January 2004.

Praising their efforts so far, O’Neill on Thursday used his power under what is known as the Spencer Charge in Pennsylvania to send the sequestered jurors back into deliberation in hopes they could reach a consensus. The jurors did go back for nearly two more days and a few more questions of the court, but obviously to no avail in breaking their logjam.

Having charged Cosby in late 2015, just before the Keystone State’s statute of limitations on sex crimes was about to expire, a mistrial is a huge defeat for the office of the Montgomery County D.A. and Steele personally right now, regardless of any future retrial.

“This is a very straightforward case,” Steele told the jury in his June 12 closing argument about the alleged drugging and sexual assault of Constand at Cosby’s Philadelphia-area mansion. “If you have sexual relations with someone when they’re out, when they’re asleep, when they’re unconscious, that’s a crime,” the D.A. said of that January 2004 night in his more than two hours of remarks Monday.

The trio of charges Cosby faced and could face again break down to “penetration, however slight” of Constand without her consent, that penetration happened while Constand was “unconscious or the defendant knows the complainant is unaware that the penetration is occurring,” and giving the victim an intoxicating drug for “the purpose of preventing resistance.”

On the stand for nearly 10 hours on June 6-7, Constand recollected in sometimes graphic detail what happened in Cosby’s home, the “mentor” relationship she thought she had with the actor beforehand, his previous passes at her, and the aftermath of the alleged assault. Constand’s appearance as a witness was the first time Cosby’s 44-year-old accuser had publicly told her side of events that allegedly transpired at the actor’s mansion more than 13 years ago. Throughout the entire trial on the third floor of the Montgomery County courthouse, Cosby sat at the front at the defense table listening to the proceedings.

Resting their case in the June 5-starting trial less in than 10 minutes Monday, the defense decided not to call Cosby as witness in the only criminal case against the actor, even though more than 60 women have claimed he drugged and sexually assaulted them over the decades. Although the defense’s case was short, Cosby attorney Brian McMonagle gave a more than two-hour-long closing argument that saw his vocal volume go way up and chairs pounded often to punctuate his points about inconsistencies in Constand’s version of the events.

While admitting in an explosive unsealed deposition in Constand’s 2005 civil case that he had Quaaludes to give to women for sex before, and that he gave the then-Temple basketball staffer at least two Benadryl supposedly for stress, Cosby has always insisted the incident in question was consensual.

Never really reaching the proportions of the O.J. Simpson trial that once seemed a fair comparison, Cosby’s criminal trial also came as several civil cases against the actor still pending nationwide, like ex-America’s Next Top Model judge Janice Dickinson’s defamation action in Los Angeles.

As for the Pennsylvania trial, the decision by then-Montgomery County D.A Bruce Castor to not prosecute a criminal case in 2005 was left unclear and unexplored by both sides during the proceedings, a likely confusing factor for the jury. Add to that the convoluted nature of how Constand’s case was resurrected by former Montgomery County D.A. Risa Ferman in mid-2015 when Cosby’s much-leaked 2005 deposition officially made public by a federal judge, and you have a foggy legal timeline.

On top of that, and certainly the big button the defense pushed again and again during the trial, were those apparent inconsistencies in Constand’s version of what happened that 2004 night.

Exposing lapses or contradictions in Constand’s statements and her nearly 10-hour testimony on the stand last week, the defense was stymied in calling a former Constand acquaintance as a witness to supposedly reveal Constand’s motives in accusing Cosby. However, throughout the trial and in their closing argument, the defense centered on the admittedly close relationship Constand said she had with Cosby, how she finally got in touch with police more than a year later, and why she delayed in reporting the alleged rape.

Since going into deliberations Monday, the jury sought clarification on several separate occasions. The first time was on June 12, when the jurors wanted context around how Cosby referred to the Benadryl pills he gave Constand; the judge read to them the portion of the actor’s deposition from the 2005 civil case where Cosby called the pills “little friends.” Almost first thing on Thursday, the jury sought to look over police statements Constand made in 2005 and was read to again from Cosby’s 2005 deposition. That day the jurors heard from Judge O’Neill for about 45 minutes as he read the portions of the deposition centering on the night in question and the sequence of events.

Later on Tuesday, the jurors had another question of clarification, wanting to know what the phrase “without the knowledge” meant. O’Neill responded he couldn’t define the phrase for them. The third felony count that Cosby is charged with addresses the pills, identified in the trial as Benadryl, that the actor gave to Constand. Constand and prosecutors claim the pills left her unable “to fight him” as Cosby allegedly molested her.

On Tuesday afternoon, the jury asked to hear once again the testimony of Detective David Mason, the Toronto-area police officer who took Constand’s first statement in the matter in early 2005, soon after she told her family of the incident.

In their telling fifth question since deliberations began, the jurors Wednsday asked to have specific portions of Constand’s extensive testimony from last week read back to them. In total, Constand’s almost 10 hours of testimony runs to 300 pages, as O’Neill pointed out to the jury. He read aloud for about 30 minutes before the jury exited for more deliberations.

Well over the point of 20 hours of deliberation, the jurors had another question later on Wednesday, wanting to hear the testimony of Cheltenham Township County police Sgt. Richard Schaffer and his initial interview with Cosby in 2005 in New York after Constand and her family contacted Pennsylvania authorities about the alleged assault. Unfortunately, the transcript of that testimony wasn’t ready, so the jury took an early dinner break while the material was prepared by court officials. They eventually heard the testimony late on June 14.

Having announced that they were deadlocked and being sent back to keep trying on June 15, the jury didn’t have any questions on Thursday. However, within less than an hour of starting their deliberations today, the jury had a two-part seventh question that revealed just how fraught things had become. They wanted a definition for “reasonable doubt” and they wanted to re-hear the portion of Cosby’s deposition from Constand’s 2005 civil case against the comedian where he talked about giving Quaaludes to women he was having sex with.

Later on Friday, the jurors asked to hear part of the testimony of Constand’s mother Gianna from last week as well as look over Constand’s phone records in the months right after the alleged assault by Cosby in early 2004. There was also another testy back and forth between the Judge and attorney McMonagle over the latter’s latest unsuccessful attempt to get a mistrial declared. The Judge declined that move by the defense but even after bringing the jury back to deliberate on a Saturday could not get a verdict.

In the days and weeks to come, whether those questions proved to be the stumbling blocks that the jury could not get over will be analyzed over and over. However, sitting in that courtroom during the trial, it was clear that what Constand did, how she did it, and how many lawyers she spoke to was the defense’s primary tactic. It is also clear that the impact of those tactics on the jurors was at least enough to raise the specter of reasonable doubt, put them at a impasse and ultimately cause a mistrial.</s>Jurors in the Bill Cosby sexual assault trial have returned for a fifth day of deliberations.

Jurors in the Bill Cosby sexual assault trial have returned for a fifth day of deliberations.

(Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Pool Photo via AP). Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele, right, Montgomery County Assistant District Attorney Kristen, center, and Bill Cosby's defense attorney Angela Agrusa enter the courtroom during jury deliberation

(Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Pool Photo via AP). Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele, center, and Montgomery County Assistant District Attorney Kristen, left, enter the courtroom during jury deliberations in Bill Cosy's sexual assault trial.

(Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Pool Photo via AP). Andrea Constand, right, returns to the courtroom at the Montgomery County Courthouse during Bill Cosby's sexual assault trial Thursday, June 15, 2017, in Norristown, Pa.

(AP Photo/Matt Slocum). Bill Cosby shakes hands with his lawyer Brian McMonagle as they leave the Montgomery County Courthouse during Cosby's sexual assault trial, Thursday, June 15, 2017, in Norristown, Pa.

NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) - Bill Cosby thanked his fans and supporters on Friday as a jury deliberated sexual assault charges that could send him to prison for the rest of his life, sending a tweet shortly after the panel asked to review his devastating testimony about giving drugs to women he wanted to have sex with.

It was the first Twitter message from Cosby in more than a week and came as jurors spent a fifth day in talks, trying to break an impasse that has raised the possibility of a mistrial for the 79-year-old TV star.

The panel returned to the courtroom to listen to what Cosby had to say about his use of the now-banned party drug quaaludes.

Cosby testified in a 2006 deposition that he got seven prescriptions for the powerful sedative in the 1970s for the purpose of giving them to women before sex.

The testimony is relevant because Cosby is charged with drugging and molesting Andrea Constand at his home in 2004.

He has said he gave Benadryl to Constand, 44, before what he insisted was a consensual sexual encounter. Prosecutors have suggested he might have given her quaaludes.

Cosby, who gave the deposition as part of Constand's civil lawsuit against him, said in 2006 he never took quaaludes himself, preferring to keep it on hand for social situations.

"When you got the quaaludes, was it in your mind that you were going to use these quaaludes for young women that you wanted to have sex with?" Cosby was asked.

But he said he no longer had the quaaludes - a highly popular party drug in the 1970s that was banned in the U.S. in 1982 - when he met Constand in 2002 at Temple University.

Cosby's lawyer said he and Constand were lovers sharing a consensual moment of intimacy.

Jurors also asked for the definition of "reasonable doubt" on Friday, a day after telling the judge they were deadlocked on all charges and the judge instructed them to keep trying for a verdict.

The panel has been working for more than 40 hours since getting the case on Monday.

The jury went back to the deliberating room after having the quaaludes testimony read back to them and listening again to the definition of reasonable doubt, the threshold that prosecutions must cross to win a conviction.

Judge Steven O'Neill said Friday that defense lawyers have made at least four bids for a mistrial as the deliberations have worn on without a verdict. But he said he'd let the jurors work as long as they wanted. The judge brought Cosby into court to make sure he'd approved of the mistrial requests, asking the comedian if he knew that a mistrial would mean he could be prosecuted again.

O'Neill also called out Cosby spokesman Andrew Wyatt for taking to the courthouse steps and telling reporters the case should end in a mistrial.

"You have a spokesman who is explaining to the media what a mistrial means - at least what he believes a mistrial is," O'Neill told Cosby in court.

Dozens of women have come forward to say Cosby had drugged and assaulted them, but this was the only case to result in criminal charges.

The jury must come to a unanimous decision to convict or acquit. If the panel can't break the deadlock, the judge could declare a hung jury and a mistrial. In that case, prosecutors would get four months to decide whether they want to retry the TV star or drop the charges.

The case has already helped demolish his image as America's Dad, cultivated during his eight-year run as kindly Dr. Cliff Huxtable on the top-rated "The Cosby Show" in the 1980s and '90s.

The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they grant permission, which Constand has done.

For more on Cosby, including trial updates, historical photos, videos and an audio series exploring the case, visit http://www.apnews.com/tag/CosbyonTrial.

Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</s>NORRISTOWN, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- During more than 41 hours of deliberations so far, jurors in Bill Cosby's indecent assault trial have asked eight questions.

Three of them pertain to wanting to review what Cosby said and another two are about the testimony of his accuser, Andrea Constand. The jurors also asked the court to define a phrase in one of the charges, to define "reasonable doubt," and to rehear what a detective had testified to about Cosby's interview with police in 2005.

Cosby is accused of drugging and assaulting Constand, who was then the director of operations for Temple University's women's basketball team. She says the incident happened at Cosby's home near Philadelphia in January 2004.

The comedian faces three charges of aggravated indecent assault. If found guilty, he could face up to 10 years in prison for each charge.

Cosby, 79, pleaded not guilty to the three counts.

When the trial started in June 5, the jury of seven men and five women were bused in from Allegheny County near Pittsburgh and have since been sequestered in a hotel.

They began deliberating Monday evening and will resume deliberations Thursday morning.

These are the eight questions the jury asked:

Question 1: Can we see in Mr. Cosby's testimony the part where he called the pills his "friends?" We need to see the whole context.

The jurors asked for a reading of part of Cosby's deposition from more than a decade ago in which he described giving pills to Constand on the night of the alleged sexual assault in 2004.

The drugs he gave Constand were over-the-counter Benadryl, he had said. Cosby had called the pills "friends."

"'I have three friends for you to make you relax,'" Cosby said, recalling during the deposition what he'd told Constand.

Constand reported the incident to police in 2005, a year after the alleged incident. At the time, the district attorney declined to press charges, citing insufficient evidence.

Constand sued in civil court, and Cosby provided a sworn deposition in which he said he had engaged in consensual sexual activity with Constand -- and that he had obtained Quaaludes in order to give them to women with whom he wanted to have sex.

That civil suit was settled in 2006, and the Cosby deposition was sealed until 2015. The unsealed deposition was central to Cosby's ongoing criminal case.

Question 2: We would like to see evidence from C-27 -- C43.

Commonwealth exhibits 27 through 43 comprise a wider portion of Cosby's deposition from more than a decade ago.

Among the topics covered in these portions of the deposition:

-- How Cosby met Constand, and when he developed a romantic interest in her.

-- Cosby's description of what he says was a romantic encounter with Constand before the night of the alleged assault.

-- Cosby's description of what he says happened on the night of the alleged assault. That includes all the testimony covered in Question 1.

Question 3: Will you please define what it means in count 3 "without her knowledge?"

The jury asked the court to define the phrase "without her knowledge" in the third count of the aggravated indecent assault charge against Cosby.

Judge Steven O'Neill said the jury had the written charge in its possession and that he is not permitted to define the charges any further, saying it was up to the jury to determine what the phrase means.

The third count accuses Cosby of impairing Constand "by administering drugs, intoxicants or other means for the purpose of preventing resistance."

O'Neill offered to read the written charge, but the jury didn't take him up on it.

Question 4: Can we see the initial report to the Durham Police or what the court reporter recorded of that interview of Andrea Constand?

Canadian detective Dave Mason of Durham Regional Police took down the report on Constand's sexual offense claim in January 2005. She made the report in her home province of Ontario, Canada.

Last week, Mason testified in court about his interview with Constand.

According to Mason, Constand said she had gone to Cosby's house after dinner in mid-January 2004.

When they were alone in the kitchen, he offered a few blue pills to help her with tension, Mason testified recalling his interview.

Shortly afterward she began feeling dizzy and said her legs were like "jelly," Mason said. She said after she started experiencing those effects, Cosby escorted her to a sitting room, he testified.

Mason said Constand didn't recall much after that and said that Cosby lied next to her and assaulted her.

Question 5: Can we hear/see the testimony of Andrea Constand from the night of the incident? (On the witness stand)

Constand had testified over two days last week for the prosecution and had spoken about the night of the alleged indecent assault by Cosby.

The court reporter read back that part of her testimony.

Constand alleged that Cosby gave her three blue pills that he said were herbal and would help her relax.

"Put them down, they're your friends. They'll take the edge off," Cosby told her, she testified.

She became incapacitated and felt "frozen" and told him so, Constand testified. Cosby then placed her on the couch and sexually assaulted her without her consent, she had said.

Question 6: Can we hear the Richard Schaffer testimony about his talk with Mr. Cosby?

Sgt. Richard Schaffer with Pennsylvania's Cheltenham Township police department testified last week about a January 2005 interview that Cosby gave to police about the alleged assault.

That interview occurred in the presence of Cosby's lawyers in New York City.

In court, Schaffer read aloud Cosby's statements from that interview.

During his interview with law enforcement, Cosby said that he gave Benadryl to Constand.

In response to the jury's sixth question, Schaffer's entire testimony had to be transcribed by the court reporter, which she read back to the jury. The reading took nearly an hour on Wednesday.

Question 7: Can we hear Cosby's deposition about Quaaludes?

Jurors on Friday morning asked the court to repeat Cosby's deposition in a civil lawsuit that was unsealed in 2015. Speaking under oath, Cosby said he acquired seven prescriptions for Quaaludes, the powerful sedative, in order to give them to women with whom he wanted to have sex.

Cosby told a doctor that he had a bad back but did not intend to use them for himself, he said, because they made him sleepy. Quaaludes were the party drug of young people in those days, he said. He also said he did not have any in his possession as of November 2002.

Prosecutors have argued that his acknowledged use of Quaaludes on women shows that his alleged drugging of Andrea Constand in 2004 was not a mistake.

In criminal trials, prosecutors must prove, beyond a reasonable doubt -- the highest standard of proof in the legal system -- that the defendant committed the crime.

If members of the jury have a reasonable doubt as to the defendant's guilt, they must declare him or her not guilty.

In Cosby's trial, jurors said Thursday they are deadlocked and cannot come to a unanimous opinion on any of the three charges. Judge Steven O'Neill asked them to continue deliberating, and they returned on Friday morning with the "reasonable doubt" question, suggesting that they remain deadlocked.
The trial against comedian Bill Cosby at the Montgomery County Courthouse ends with a hung jury and the consequent declaration of a mistrial.