Bill Cosby is being retried for sexual assault
THE retrial of comedian Bill Cosby on sexual assault charges begins Monday in the suburban Philadelphia town of Norristown, Pennsylvania. Here’s everything you need to know.
Why is Cosby being tried a second time?
Cosby’s first trial on charges of drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand, a former Temple University women’s basketball official, ended in a mistrial on June 17.
Jurors deliberated for 52 hours but said they were hopelessly deadlocked. After the mistrial was declared, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, District Attorney Kevin Steele immediately announced that he would retry Cosby.
How will this trial be different from the first?
The shape of the case was dramatically altered by a major judicial decision in advance of the retrial that will allow five previous accusers to testify as prosecution witnesses. The ruling by Steven T. O’Neill, the Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, judge overseeing the case, gives prosecutors a huge opening to press their argument that Cosby is a serial sexual assaulter.
O’Neill had allowed only one previous accuser to testify at the first trial. But this time, he was swayed by prosecution arguments that a Pennsylvania court decision issued after his ruling in the first case changed the legal landscape regarding testimony from past accusers. In that case, a Pennsylvania Supreme Court judge referenced a legal concept called the “doctrine of chances,” which essentially says that the more times the same person is accused of the same type of crime under the same circumstances, the less likely it is that accused was innocently involved in those situations.
In the first trial, the jury was selected in Pittsburgh because of defence concerns about pretrial publicity in the Philadelphia area. This time, the defence did not ask for the jury to be selected in another jurisdiction, so the panel will be culled from the same area - Montgomery County, Pennsylvania - where the retrial will be held.
Cosby has new attorneys. His previous defence team was headed by Brian McMonagle, a highly respected Philadelphia defense attorney who pounded the defense table during a highoctane closing argument in which he lambasted the media for giving a forum to 60 women who have publicly accused Cosby of harassment, sexual assault or rape. McMonagle, who at times seemed to clash with Cosby’s public relations team, withdrew from the case after the mistrial without explanation.
Cosby’s defence is now headed by Thomas Mesereau, a famed Los Angeles attorney who won an acquittal for pop star Michael Jackson on child molestation charges.
What are the criminal charges against Cosby?
Cosby is accused of three counts of aggravated indecent assault for allegedly drugging and sexually assaulting Constand at his suburban Philadelphia home in early 2004. Each count carries a maximum prison sentence of 10 years.
Why are the charges related to only one woman?
At least 60 women have publicly accused Cosby of rape, sexual assault or sexual harassment between the 1960s and 2000s. The statutes of limitation have expired for most of their cases, preventing the accusers from seeking criminal charges.
Criminal charges were filed against Cosby in the Constand case just before the expiration of Pennsylvania’s statute of limitations.
Who are the possible key witnesses? Andrea Constand Legal experts say much of the case rests on the credibility of Cosby’s main accuser. Constand, a former professional basketball player with an easygoing manner and a mound of curly brown hair, testified at the first trial in a voice that cracked with emotion.
Fighting back tears, she described how her vision blurred after the legendary comic gave her pills. “I told Mr. Cosby that I had trouble seeing him,” she told jurors. “I could see two of him.”
Under cross-examination, Constand struggled to explain inconsistencies in her statements to investigators - including the date of the alleged assault and whether she maintained contact with Cosby. Gianna Constand Andrea Constand’s mother proved to be a formidable witness at the first trial, offering testimony about a call she secretly recorded with Cosby and about other conversations with the man she believes sexually assaulted her daughter.
She told jurors that Cosby told her in a call she did not record that “he was sorry for what he did.”
In a memorable exchange, she brusquely batted away a suggestion by a defence attorney that Cosby never confessed to her. “You’re wrong,” Gianna Constand said to defence cocounsel Angela Agrusa. The past accusers Prosecutors have said they will call five women who allege they were sexually assaulted by Cosby between 1982 and the mid1990s. The best known accuser is Janice Dickinson, a former supermodel who has made frequent and often emotional television appearances to lay out her claim that Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted her at a Lake Tahoe hotel. Dickinson says Cosby gave her a blue pill that immobilized her arms and legs and left her unconscious, and that she awoke with a “sharp pain in her buttocks.”
Dickinson’s attorney, Lisa Bloom, said in an email that the former model is “ready, willing and able to testify truthfully about her experience.”
Another accuser, Janice Baker-Kinney, was a bartender at Harrah’s Reno. She says she became “fuzzy” and “woozy” after taking two pills at a house in Reno where Cosby had lured her with promises of a party that never materialized. Heidi Thomas, a model who also is slated to testify, says she, too, was drugged and assaulted by Cosby in Reno.
Two other witnesses - Chelan Lasha and Lise-Lotte Lublin - say they were drugged and sexually assaulted by Cosby in his suite at a Las Vegas hotel in the mid- to late 1980s. Lasha says she believes Cosby slipped a drug into a glass of Amaretto he gave her. Lublin says Cosby gave her two drinks, saying they would help “relax” her.
Prosecutors have signalled that they do not plan to call Kelley Johnson, the one previous accuser who was allowed to testify at Cosby’s first trial. Johnson sobbed on the witness stand while recounting her allegation that Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted her at a Los Angeles hotel.
Defence attorneys fought to keep the women from testifying, arguing that their presence would in effect create a series of “mini-trials.” Cosby’s attorneys also said they would have difficulty preparing to defend against the accusations because the allegations are so old that vital records may not be available and key witnesses may have died. Two weeks before the retrial, Judge O’Neill rejected a last-minute request by the defence to delay the trial to give the Cosby attorneys more time to prepare a defence against the allegations of the past accusers.
Who will challenge Andrea Constand?
One of the toughest decisions for the defence will be deciding who will cross-examine Constand. Because of the delicate nature of the accusations, which include graphic references to sexual contact, some legal experts believe it would be wise to have a woman handle the questioning of Cosby’s main accuser.
In the first trial, Constand was cross-examined by Agrusa, a prominent Los Angeles attorney whose lack of experience in criminal trials showed as she fumbled with her notes and was repeatedly upbraided by the judge for not following proper procedures.
Mesereau, Cosby’s lead attorney, hasn’t said whether he’ll handle cross-examination of Constand. He could turn to one of the two high-powered women on Cosby’s defence team, each of whom played large roles in pretrial hearings. Kathleen Bliss is a former federal prosecutor with a commanding courtroom presence who warned Judge O’Neill during a hearing that she can be “strident” at times. Becky S. James, also a former federal prosecutor, is best known for her work on appeals.
What’s the strongest evidence against Cosby?
Cosby gave extraordinary testimony in 2005 and 2006 during a lawsuit filed against him by Constand. (The case was eventually settled for an undisclosed amount.) The Associated Press filed a lawsuit in late 2014 to unseal the testimony and details from the full deposition were later reported by media outlets, including the New York Times and The Washington Post.