Cos looks to get last laugh
DA loses element of surprise in retrial
ADVANTAGE Cosby.
The jury deadlock in Bill Cosby’s sexual assault case will likely give his legal defense an edge in an expected retrial, according to a legal expert.
“The prosecution had to show all of its cards,” Wesley Oliver, criminal justice program director at Duquesne University Law School in Pittsburgh, told the Daily News.
Cosby, 79, the comedian once known as “America’s Dad,” didn’t testify during the trial in Norristown, Pa.
“If Cosby had testified, I would say that benefits the prosecution, but there’s nothing there they can comb through,” Oliver said.
Cosby previously said under oath that he got several prescriptions for Quaaludes in the 1970s to give to women before having sex with them.
But he maintained he only gave accuser Andrea Constand three half-tablets of Benadryl to help her relax. Afterward, he says, the two had consensual sexual contact inside his home.
More than 50 other women have publicly accused the comedian of sexual assault.
The prosecution wanted to call 13 of those accusers to prove a pattern that corroborated Constand’s claims. But Montgomery County Judge Steven O’Neill only allowed one, Kelly Johnson.
“If the court does revisit that issue, that’s a whole new game,” said Oliver, who followed the case closely. “If you have more accusers, it’s a very different story.”
The deadlocked jury deliberated for 52 hours over six days before giving up.
District Attorney Kevin Steele said Friday he would push for a retrial as soon as possible, reassess the case and possibly make some “tweaks.”
Still, Cosby’s team believes the case is bunk, and retrying it would be unfair to the celebrity due to his failing health.
“It was difficult for me, and I have no idea how he managed to sit in a room and endure while strangers were deciding his destiny and his fate,” Cosby’s lawyer Brian McMonagle said.