Sessions hearing:
Attorney general to testify in public Tuesday before the Senate intelligence committee.
NORRISTOWN, Pa. — The jury at Bill Cosby’s trial began deliberating Monday over whether he drugged and molested a woman more than a decade ago in a case that already has helped demolish the 79-year-old comedian’s good-guy image.
A conviction could send Cosby to prison for the rest of his life, completing the stunning late-life downfall of one of the most beloved stars in all of show business.
The fast-moving case went to the jury on the sixth day of the trial after closing arguments painted different pictures of what happened between Cosby and Andrea Constand at his suburban Philadelphia estate. The jurors deliberated for about four hours Monday night without reaching a verdict, and were set to resume deliberations Tuesday morning.
Defense attorney Brian McMonagle told the jury that Cosby and Constand were lovers who had enjoyed secret “romantic interludes” and that the 2004 encounter was consensual. McMonagle said that while the comedian had been unfaithful to his wife, he didn’t commit a crime.
Prosecutors countered by saying “fancy lawyering” can’t save Cosby from his own words — namely, his admission about groping Constand 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.
After the prosecution took five days to outline its side, the defense case consisted of just one witness — a detective — and six minutes of testimony Monday. Cosby did not take the stand.
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.
He is charged with three counts of aggravated indecent assault, each one punishable by up to 10 years behind bars.
Cosby’s wife of 53 years, Camille was in the courtroom for the first time in the trial.