Cosby trial goes to jury
Conviction in fast-moving trial could send him to prison for rest of his life
The sexual assault trial of Bill Cosby speeds toward a close on its sixth day Monday evening as jury deliberations begin in Norristown, Pennsylvania. Testimony ended sooner than expected when the comedian’s defense team rested its case after just five minutes, calling only one witness — a prosecution witness who had testified last week — for a few follow-up questions.
NORRISTOWN, PA. The Bill Cosby sexual assault trial here sped to a close on Day 6 as jury deliberations began Monday evening after the defense opted not to present a case and closing arguments concluded.
The trial, which was supposed to last about two weeks, came to a close much sooner than expected, thanks in large part to the Cosby defense team’s decision to rest its case after just five minutes, calling only one witness — a prosecution witness who had testified last week — for a few follow-up questions on Monday morning.
Instead, most of Monday was given over to closing arguments, first the defense and then the prosecution, followed by jury instructions from Judge Steven O’Neill.
Cosby is charged with three counts of aggravated indecent assault in connection with an encounter with Andrea Constand at his home in 2004. She says he drugged and molested her as she lay helpless on his couch. He says the encounter was consensual.
District Attorney Kevin Steele’s closing arguments were businesslike and direct.
He argued the case is “as straightforward as you’re ever going to see in a sex crimes case — ever.”
Steele said the case rested on three pillars the state had proven: One, that Cosby drugged Constand. Two, that she was “legally” unconscious. Three, that she was unable to consent to sexual activity.
“This is not sympathy for the victim. This is not sympathy for the defendant. This is about evaluating the facts,” Steele said.
As jurors watched Steele closely, Cosby faced forward away from the prosecutor and the jury. Steele recounted how both Constand and Cosby had referred to pills the entertainer had offered to Constand as her “friends.” “Who says something like that when you’re in that situation?” Steele asked the jury, rhetorically. “He is guilty of aggravated indecent assault because it comes out of his own mouth.”
Because of her condition after being drugged that night, Steele said, Cosby took away Constand’s ability to say no to any advances. “Why? Because of what he wanted.”
Steele, continuing to address defense statements, said a “romantic interlude” did not exist between Constand and Cosby. That is evidenced, he said, by how Cosby left Constand disheveled on a couch after the incident.
“You’re there by yourself. You don’t put her in a bedroom for this … you put her on a sofa, you do what you do to her, and then you leave her,” he said, pleading with the jury.
Earlier, lead defense attorney Brian McMonagle’s final argument swung wildly from whispered portrayals of Cosby and Constand’s “romantic” relationship to exasperated shouts, urging jurors that Constand’s misstatements to police — including about the date of the night in question — must create doubt about Constand’s accusations that Cosby committed sexual assault.
During closing, McMonagle repeated to the jurors that Cosby’s life is in their hands.
For the first 10 minutes of the argument, however, McMonagle told a story about a father and daughter he had seen recently in a park eating ice cream. The anecdote led him to say that children see the best in their parents despite flaws.
The defense lawyer then made the connection to Cosby, saying that he was flawed, but his entertainment also changed how many saw the world.
Cosby “taught us how to smile … and how to love each other, no matter what we look like,” McMonagle said.
The lawyer emphasized that criminal charges were put into motion by attorneys in an earlier civil lawsuit that offered no evidence of guilt.
Cosby’s deposition in that case provided no new information about the night that Constand says Cosby assaulted her, McMonagle said.
“This isn’t a civil case like I told you where we’re talking about money,” he said. “We’re talking about all of a man’s tomorrows.”
He acknowledged that Cosby gave Constand pills, but they were Benadryl and were meant to ease her tension.
Never, was she incapacitated, he told the jurors, who were listening attentively.
The attorney concluded, telling the jurors that if they hold “more questions than you’ve got answers. That’s reasonable doubt.”
On Monday, for the first time, Cosby, 79 and nearly blind, was accompanied to court by his wife of more than 50 years, Camille.