A JURY IS NOW DECIDING WHETHER BILL COSBY SEXUALLY ASSAULTED A CANADIAN WOMAN 13 YEARS AGO. DEFENCE LAWYERS, WHO CLOSED THEIR CASE AFTER SIX MINUTES, CLAIM HE WAS ROMANTICALLY LINKED TO THE WOMAN.
JURY DELIBERATING
NORRISTOWN, PA. • Bill Cosby’s trial raced toward a close Monday, with his lawyer telling the jury that the comedian and the woman who accuses him of drugging and molesting her more than a decade ago were lovers who had enjoyed secret “romantic interludes.”
Prosecutors countered by saying “fancy lawyering” can’t save Cosby from his own words — namely, his admission about groping Andrea Constand at his Philadelphia home after giving her pills he knew could put her to sleep.
“Drugging somebody and putting them in a position where you can do what you want with them is not romantic. It’s criminal,” District Attorney Kevin Steele said in his closing argument.
The jury of seven men and five women are now considering their verdict. A conviction could send the 79-yearold Cosby to prison for the rest of his life.
The two sides launched into their closing arguments after the defence put on a case that consisted of just one witness — a detective — and six minutes of testimony. Cosby himself chose not to take the stand, ending days of suspense over whether the jury would hear directly from him.
Legal experts said testifying would have been a risky move that could have opened the TV star to withering cross-examination about some of the 60 or so other women who have accused him of drugging or molesting them in a barrage that has all but destroyed his nice-guy image.
Cosby lawyer Brian McMonagle said that while the comedian had been unfaithful to his wife, he didn’t commit a crime. He said that the comic’s 2004 sexual encounter with Constand was consensual and that they had been intimate before.
McMonagle also pointed out that Constand telephoned Cosby dozens of times after the alleged assault. Constand told the jury she was merely returning his calls about the women’s basketball squad at Temple University, where she worked as director of team operations and he was a member of the board of trustees.
“This isn’t talking to a trustee. This is talking to a lover,” McMonagle said of one call that lasted 49 minutes. “Why are we running from the truth of this case — this relationship? Why? I don’t understand it.”
Constand, 44, testified last week that Cosby gave her three blue pills and then penetrated her with his fingers against her will as she lay paralyzed and half-conscious. She denied they had a romantic relationship and said she had rebuffed previous advances from him.