DA aims to retry Cosby after mistrial
NORRISTOWN, Pa. — Bill Cosby avoided conviction yesterday as a jury declared itself deadlocked on charges he drugged and molested a woman more than a decade ago.
Prosecutors found themselves back to square one yesterday after the judge declared a mistrial after more than 52 hours of deliberations over six days.
Excoriated by the defense for charging Cosby in the first place, District Attorney Kevin Steele vowed to put him on trial a second time, saying accuser Andrea Constand supported the decision.
“She has shown such courage through this, and we are in awe of what she has done,” Steele said. “She’s entitled to a verdict in this case.”
Cosby’s team declared victory, however temporary.
By sowing doubt among one or more jurors, Cosby’s lawyers managed to overcome two years of unrelenting bad publicity for their client after the public release of his damaging testimony about drugs and sex, as well as a barrage of accusations from 60 women who came forward to accuse him of sexual assault.
Constand’s 2004 encounter with Cosby at his suburban Philadelphia estate was the only one to result in criminal charges.
She told jurors that Cosby gave her pills that made her woozy and then penetrated her with his fingers as she lay paralyzed on a couch, unable to tell him to stop.
“She’s ready to go again,” said her lawyer, Dolores Troiani, of a retrial.
The jury failed to reach a unanimous decision on any of the three counts against the comedian, ending the trial without a verdict.
Cosby’s team immediately went on the attack.
The entertainer’s wife of 53 years, Camille, slammed prosecutors for bringing the case to court, calling Steele “heinously and exploitively ambitious” in a statement. She also criticized the judge, the accuser’s lawyers and the media.
“How do I describe the judge? Overtly arrogant, collaborating with the district attorney,” read the statement, which was tweeted by her husband and read by an associate of the public relations firm representing Cosby.
Cosby himself didn’t comment, remaining stoic as the judge declared a mistrial, but his spokesman, Andrew Wyatt, declared the star’s “power is back. It has been restored.”