With Jury Deadlocked, Bill Cosby Sexual Assault Case Declared a Mistrial
After five full days of deliberation left the jury in the Cosby sexual assault trial deadlocked on whether to convict the comedian on any of the three counts of felony aggravated indecent assault, the judge in the case declared a mistrial Saturday morning, putting an end to this round of the criminal proceeding. The trial was over the alleged 2004 drugging and sexual assault of Andrea Constand, a former employee Temple University, at Cosby’s Philadelphia home. Constand’s allegation was one of dozens sometimes decades-old accusations leveled at Cosby over the past several years.
Moments after Judge Steve T. O’Neill announced the mistrial in the Norristown, Penn. courthouse, the Montgomery County District Attorney, Kevin R. Steele, announced he would retry the case.
DA Steele announces we will retry this case.
— Montgomery County DA (@MontcopaDA) June 17, 2017
William H. Cosby Jr. remains free on bail. New trial date will be set.
— Montgomery County DA (@MontcopaDA) June 17, 2017
Cosby's publicist Andrew Wyatt: "Mr. Cosby's power is back. It's back. He has been restored." https://t.co/rAB76WbyHJ
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) June 17, 2017
The three second-degree charges against the 79-year-old Cosby, each of which carries a minimum 5-year sentence, remain. Cosby’s attorneys maintained throughout the trial that the actor’s relationship with Constand was consensual. Amid the deluge of accusations that were unearthed over the past several years, Cosby admitted to giving numerous women drugs and having sexual relationships with them, which, he says, were consensual. More than 50 women came forward saying they were assaulted by Cosby. Out of court, Cosby’s lawyers countered the allegations saying they were attempts at extortion and efforts to bring those cases into a courtroom were thwarted by statute of limitations on the alleged crimes.
"It's time for rape and violence to stop so the healing can start," says Cosby accuser Jewel Allison https://t.co/mjycSOfNJu
— CNN (@CNN) June 17, 2017
*This post has been updated with new video as it became available.