Cosby

The jurors, who were selected in Pittsburgh due to pretrial publicity in the Montgomery County region, listened to five days of testimony and deliberated for six. On Thursday, jurors announced they were deadlocked.

But O’Neill gave them a special instruction required by law and sent them back to deliberate to see if they could settle their differences and reach a verdict. The jurors did not mention anything about the deadlock again until Saturday when they announced they were “hopelessly deadlocked” and that the deadlock could not be resolved by additional deliberations.

During their deliberations, jurors sent a string of questions to the judge, asking to rehear the testimonies of five trial witnesses and Cosby’s previous deposition testimony. There were a total of 12 trial witnesses.

McMonagle had sought a mistrial seven times during the deliberation phase, arguing jurors were asking to review the entire trial. But O’Neill said as long as the jury wished to deliberate he would allow them to do so. The jurors apparently decided Saturday that they had had enough.

During the trial, prosecutors alleged Cosby was a trusted friend and mentor who took advantage of a woman in a “vulnerable state,” plied Constand with “three blue pills” and sexually assaulted her at his Cheltenham mansion in mid-January 2004.

Constand, 44, of Ontario, Canada, testified over two days that after taking the blue pills she began slurring her words and became “frozen” or paralyzed and was unable to fight off Cosby’s sexual advances. Constand claimed Cosby placed her on a couch, touched her breasts, forced her to touch his penis and performed digital penetration all

But McMonagle and Agrusa argued Cosby was the victim of false accusations and that the entertainer and Constand had a “romantic relationship” and consensual sexual contact during the 2004 incident. At one point during the trial, McMonagle stood beside Cosby and suggested to jurors that while Cosby may have been an unfaithful husband, that didn’t make him a criminal. without her consent.

LUCAS JACKSON/POOL PHOTO VIA AP Accuser Andrea Constand exits the courtroom during deliberations in Bill Cosby’s sexual assault trial at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown. Friday.