Bill Cosby found guilty of sexual assault in retrial

Cosby, 80, faces a maximum sentence of 10 years and a fine of up to $25,000 on each of three counts.</s>Bill Cosby’s fall from iconic TV star became complete Thursday when a jury found him guilty of three felony counts of aggravated indecent assault.

Cosby, 80, was charged with violating Temple University employee Andrea Constand at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004. Cosby had claimed the encounter was consensual.

Cosby’s lawyers called Constand a “con artist” who leveled false accusations against Cosby so she could sue him.

During closing arguments Tuesday, special prosecutor Kristen Gibbons Feden used that claim against Cosby, telling the jury, “She is not the con. He is.”

Last year, another jury deadlocked on the same charges against Cosby, resulting in a mistrial.

Cosby could get up to 10 years in prison on each of the counts. He also faces a fine of up to $25,000 on each county.

More than 50 women have accused Cosby of similar assaults against them over the years. None of those accusations ever resulted in charges against Cosby, often because the statute of limitations to allege a crime had elapsed.

In this case, prosecutors were allowed to introduce testimony from five other women who told jurors they believed they had been drugged and sexually assaulted by Cosby in separate incidents in the 1980s. In last year’s trial, only one other accuser was allowed to testify against Cosby.

The jury deliberated for two days before reaching its guilty verdict.

At one point, the jury asked to have testimony read back to them from the defense’s star witness, a former friend and colleague of Constant who said she talked of plans to frame “a high-profile person” in order to sue and make millions.

RELATED: ‘Cosby Show’ Actress Lunges at Bill Outside Courtroom Hours Before Retrial Began

The jury also had testimony read back to them of a 2005 deposition by Cosby in which he admitted giving a woman drugs in order to have sex with her.

According to The New York Post, Cosby showed no emotion and looked down at the table in front of him as the verdicts were read — which prompted some of his victims in the gallery to burst into tears.

The Associated Press reported Cosby lashed out at a prosecutor in an “expletive-laden tirade” in the courtroom after his conviction.

Cosby still faces civil suits from several accusers, some who claim he defamed them by calling them liars who fabricated their allegations.

What do you think? Scroll down to comment below.</s>The university released a statement about the guilty verdict in Bill Cosby’s sexual assault retrial.

“Temple University respects today’s decision reached by the jury in the Bill Cosby case,” the statement from Brandon Lausch, a university spokesperson, reads. “Today’s decision provides additional facts for the university to consider with the respect to Bill Cosby’s honorary degree.”

Board of Trustees Chairman Patrick O’Connor will recuse himself from “discussions or decisions” about Cosby’s degree. O’Connor represented Cosby in the 2005 civil suit between him and Andrea Constand.

NORRISTOWN, Pa. — Bill Cosby was found guilty on all three counts of aggravated indecent assault on Thursday.

Each count holds a maximum of 10 years in prison.

Jurors deliberated for more than 14 hours on Wednesday and Thursday. They reheard testimony from Bill Cosby’s 2005 deposition, in which he admitted to giving former university employee Andrea Constand Benadryl and having sexual contact with her on the night she alleged he sexually assaulted her.

On Thursday morning, they reheard the testimony of Marguerite Jackson, an academic adviser Boyer College of Music and Dance, from last week. She alleged Constand told her she could falsely accuse a wealthy man of sexual assault for money.

Cosby was accused of sexually assaulting and drugging former Constand in his Montgomery County home in 2004. He was charged with three counts of aggravated indecent assault in 2015.

The university declined to comment on the verdict.</s>Editor's note: This story contains a graphic description of sexual assault.

A Pennsylvania jury has found Bill Cosby guilty of three counts of aggravated indecent assault, setting up the comic legend for the possibility of years of imprisonment for drugging and sexually violating a woman 14 years ago on a couch in his Cheltenham, Pa., home.

The 80-year-old comedian now faces a statutory maximum of 30 years in prison. One Cosby accuser was so overcome with emotion following the verdict's announcement, she had to be escorted out of court.

Prosecutors asked the judge to take Cosby into custody, saying he had a private plane and could fly anywhere in the world, but the request was denied.

Cosby initially faced sexual assault charges in court last June, but jurors could not reach a unanimous decision after 52 hours of deliberation. The judge declared it a mistrial.

This time around, the seven men and five women on the panel sat in the jury box of the Montgomery County Courthouse and listened to more than two weeks of testimony from 25 witnesses. Some cried on the stand recounting how Cosby attacked them while they were in drug-induced stupors, and others attempted to discredit main accuser Andrea Constand by detailing instances of supposed deceit and inconsistencies.

"This case is about trust," Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele told jurors in his opening remarks. "This case is about betrayal, and that betrayal leading to the sexual assault of a woman named Andrea Constand."

Constand, the only Cosby accuser whose case has triggered criminal charges, took the stand for the prosecution over two days, as she did during the first trial.

In addition to Constand, five women who have never before confronted Cosby in a criminal courtroom took the witness stand. They told the jury that the entertainer drugged and molested them in the 1980s, stories that first came to light after prosecutors reopened Cosby's criminal case in 2015. That led more than 60 women to lodge sexual misconduct allegations against the television icon once known as "America's Dad."

"You remember, don't you, Mr. Cosby?" said accuser Chelan Lasha from the stand, locking eyes with Cosby, who remained largely impassive throughout the trial.

"I want to see a serial rapist convicted," another accuser, Heidi Thomas, told the court, as spectators gasped at the statement.

Through it all, jurors had a front-row seat to the lawyerly slugfest that pitted three prosecutors from suburban Philadelphia against a throng of defense attorneys led by Los Angeles-based Tom Mesereau, who aggressively depicted Constand as a "con artist."

"You're going to be saying to yourself in this trial, 'What does she want from Bill Cosby?' " Mesereau said to jurors during opening statements. "You already know the answer: money, money and lots more money."

To bolster this argument, the defense called star witness Margo Jackson, who used to work with Constand at Temple University. Jackson was banned from testifying during the first trial, but the judge allowed her testimony this time. Jackson told jurors that Constand once confided in her that she had a plan to frame a wealthy celebrity with a made-up sexual assault claim "to get that money."

Prosecutor Kristen Feden seized on the characterization of Constand as a scheming con artist during closing arguments, saying it was Cosby who deployed his wholesome TV image to gain the trust of women he planned to incapacitate and assault.

She strode across the courtroom pointing inches away from Cosby as he sat wide-eyed at the defense table.

"The perpetrator of that con is this man!" she yelled. "Sitting right here. This is the man."

When Constand took the witness stand, she told the jury that one night in January 2004, Cosby gave her three blue pills he called "friends" to relax her. Instead, they rendered her defenseless, lapsing in and out of consciousness. Constand told jurors she was "jolted awake" by the feeling of his fingers in her vagina as she lay on a couch in Cosby's home.

A couple of months later, she told the court, she attempted to confront Cosby about it.

"I wanted to know what pills he gave to me, and why he did that to me," Constand said. "He stumbled on his words. He said, 'I don't know what you're talking about.' He said, 'I thought you had an orgasm,' and I had not. He would not answer my questions."

Constand told the court that enduring two publicity-heavy criminal trials "tore my family apart," yet when asked by prosecutor Feden why she agreed to take the stand again, Constand replied, "for justice."

Constand faced withering questions from Mesereau on cross-examination, as part of a multipronged defense focused on shaking her credibility and that of the other witnesses. He pushed Constand on why she had stayed in touch with Cosby after the incident and portrayed her as a desperate, cash-strapped pyramid scheme participant. Constand was also pressed about the nearly $3.4 million Cosby paid her in a 2006 civil settlement, which was previously confidential.

Cosby's lawyers also suggested to jurors that the incident could not have happened the way she said it did, even hinting that there is a chance Cosby was not in the Philadelphia area around the time Constand said she was assaulted. The defense did not issue an outright denial of the episode at the heart of the alleged crime. Cosby has admitted that he and Constand had sexual contact in his house around 2004, but he has long maintained it was consensual.

Legal observers have called the Cosby retrial a major test of the effects of the #MeToo movement, the wave of allegations of sexual assault lodged against prominent media figures that erupted between Cosby's first and second trials.

During jury selection, the judge asked hundreds of potential jurors whether their feelings about #MeToo would get in the way of being a fair fact-finder in the Cosby case. Almost none said they were unaware of the cultural movement. Prosecutors never mentioned #MeToo to jurors during trial. But the defense team made an unsubtle attack on it when lawyer Kathleen Bliss told the panel that "when you join a movement based mostly on emotion and anger, you don't change a damn thing," adding that "mob rule is not due process." She compared the dozens of accusations against Cosby to a "witch hunt" and a "lynching."</s>NORRISTOWN, Pa. – Jury deliberations began Wednesday in the sexual assault retrial of Bill Cosby, the first major celebrity to face a jury in the heated atmosphere of the #MeToo movement.

Cosby, now 80, is charged with drugging and molesting Andrea Constand, who was operations manager of the women’s basketball team at Temple University, at his home outside Philadelphia back in January 2004.

The jury began considering the case on the 13th day of the retrial after Montgomery County Court Judge Steven T. O’Neill instructed the panel, along with six alternates, on the law.

Andrew Wyatt, Cosby’s publicist, said that Cosby is relaxed and confident that the jury will find him not guilty of all charges. “It’s easy to rest and relax and not worry when you know you haven’t done anything wrong,” said Wyatt.

Cosby, who was once known as “America’s Dad” for his role as the lovable Cliff Huxtable on “The Cosby Show,” is charged with three counts of aggravated indecent assault. He has pleaded not guilty and contends the sexual encounter with Constand was consensual. Each count carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

Bill Cosby Trial: Closing Arguments Paint Two Different Pictures of Disgraced Entertainer

Cosby’s first trial ended last June when a different jury deadlocked on all charges after more than 50 hours of deliberations. He is now facing a jury that is slightly younger over all. The jury is composed of seven men and five women, with two African-Americans — the same make-up as last year’s jury.

The deliberations began a day after spirited closing arguments Tuesday, in which Cosby was alternately portrayed as the victim of a con artist and as a serial predator who set up women, gave them alcohol pills to incapacitate them and then sexually assaulted them.

Constand is one of dozens of women who have accused Cosby of drugging and then assaulting them — but she is the only one whose allegation became the focus of a criminal case. The charges against Cosby were filed on Dec. 30, 2015 – just days before the 12-year statute of limitations was due to expire.

The retrial has been marked by heated discord between the prosecution and the defense, with tensions rising in the courtroom and in closed-door discussions with the judge about legal isssues in the case. Cosby’s legal team is led by veteran defense lawyer Thomas Mesereau, who successfully defended Michael Jackson against child molestation charges in 2005.

The once-revered entertainer is the only major celebrity to face a jury amid the shifting cultural awareness of the seriousness of the problem of sexual assault. In less than a year, dozens of rich and powerful men have been accused of sexual harassment or assault as more women have decided to publicly address the issue.

Constand told the jury that she left Temple shortly after Cosby assaulted her and returned home to Canada, where she went to school for massage therapy. She eventually filed a lawsuit against Cosby and received the settlement.

She said when she went to his home in Montgomery County in early 2004, he offered her three blue pills to help her relax. She said she took the pills because she trusted Cosby and believed they were some kind of an herbal relaxant, and soon became incapacitated. Then, she said, she felt his fingers inside of her, but “couldn’t fight him off.”</s>Bill Cosby was found guilty of sexual assault in his retrial in Norristown, Pennsylvania, on Thursday.

A jury found Cosby, 80, guilty of three counts of aggravated indecent assault, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years. He is likely to get less than that under state sentencing guidelines, but given his age, even a modest term could mean he will spend the rest of his life behind bars.

A jury of seven men and five women deliberated for about 14 hours before delivering the verdict, which came less than a year after another trial ended in a deadlocked jury.

Cosby was convicted of drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004, when she was an employee at Temple University. A lawyer for Cosby, who has claimed the encounter was consensual, called Constand a "con artist" who leveled false accusations against Cosby so she could sue him.

The verdict came after a two-week retrial in which prosecutors put five other women on the stand who testified that Cosby drugged and assaulted them too. During her testimony, one woman said through tears, "You remember, don't you, Mr. Cosby?"

Prosecutors used Cosby's past admissions about drugs and sex, as well as the testimony of the other women, to help bolster Constand's allegations.

It was the only criminal case to arise from allegations against Cosby from more than 60 women.

"The time for the defendant to escape justice is over," the prosecutor Stewart Ryan said in his closing argument. "It's finally time for the defendant to dine on the banquet of his own consequences."

Cosby left the courthouse following the conviction but was ordered to remain in the state. Prosecutors had pushed the judge to take Cosby into custody immediately, arguing that he was a flight risk because he owned a private plane.

Journalists at the trial reported that Cosby yelled in response: "He doesn't have a plane, you a--hole!"

Associated Press reporting by Michael R. Sisak and Claudia Lauer.</s>Bill Cosby has been convicted of drugging and molesting a woman in the first big celebrity trial of the #MeToo era.

A jury outside Philadelphia 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.

Cosby was charged with violating Toronto native and Temple University employee Andrea Constand at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004. His lawyer called Constand a “con artist” who levelled false accusations against Cosby so she could sue him.

Cosby could get up to 10 years in prison on each of the counts.

Dozens of women have come forward in recent years to say he drugged and assaulted them. Five of the other accusers testified against him at the retrial.

The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they grant permission. Constand has done so.</s>The guilty verdict in Bill Cosby’s drugging and molesting criminal trial on Thursday means the 80-year-old comedian is facing some serious prison time. Cosby was convicted on all three counts of aggravated indecent assault for drugging defendant Andrea Constand before he sexually assaulted her at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004, according to multiple media reports.

Cosby’s legal team was expected to appeal the verdict in the comedian’s retrial following a hung jury last year. He was not expected to report to prison immediately, but faces 10 years for each of the three counts he was found guilty on. The sentences could run concurrently, but that was expected to be determined at a later date.

READ MORE: Full Coverage Of Bill Cosby’s Retrial For Sexual Assault

Prosecutors asked the judge to remand Cosby to prison and said he was a flight risk, but he remained free on his $1 million bail that he previously paid. After the prosecutor said Cosby could use his private plane to flee, Cosby reportedly stood up in court and called the district attorney an “asshole.”

If he were to be sentenced to the full 30 years, he would most likely die in prison.

Constand’s testimony earlier this month was pivotal, but it was perhaps the accounts by five additional Cosby accusers that proved to be the difference this time around. In the initial trial that ended up in a hung jury, only Constand’s testimony was allowed.

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The Number Of Black Candidates Running For Governor Just Got Smaller</s>Announcing their verdict on Thursday, a jury outside of Philadelphia found Bill Cosby guilty of all three sexual assault charges brought against him.

In his retrial, 80-year-old Cosby was convicted of three counts of aggravated indecent assault, for drugging and sexually assaulting Temple University employee Andrea Constand in 2004 at his suburban Philadelphia home, according to the Associated Press.

After the jury of five women and seven men left the courtroom, the “Cosby Show” star lashed out at District Attorney Kevin Steele, who was arguing to revoke Cosby’s bail, saying that the defendant had a plane.

“He doesn’t have a plane, you asshole!” Cosby shouted, according to Philly.com. Also stating, “I’m sick of him!” the AP reported.

The judge ruled that Cosby may remain free while awaiting sentencing; he has to remain at his home unless approved to go elsewhere.

The counts include “penetration with lack of consent, penetration while unconscious, and penetration after administering an intoxicant,” according to the He could face 10 years in prison for each charge, the AP reported, though the notes that they could be “served concurrently.”

Cosby’s first trial ended in June 2017 with a deadlocked jury. Prosecutors said they would retry the case. Cosby’s second trial began in April of 2018 and ended today with the jury’s guilty verdict.

More than 50 women have accused Cosby of sexual misconduct, according to CNN. Constand was the first person to go public with her allegations against Cosby. She settled a civil suit with Cosby in March of 2005. Thirteen other Jane Does were attached to that suit. In 2015, a criminal case against Cosby, relating to Constand’s accusations, was opened.</s>See photos from the courthouse after actor Bill Cosby was found guilty of three counts of aggravated indecent assault.
Bill Cosby is found guilty of three counts in regard to an aggravated sexual assault of a woman in 2004 in a retrial. He faces a maximum sentence of ten years imprisonment and a fine of up to $25,000 on each count.