Cosby retrial begins today
NORRISTOWN » The latest chapter in the Bill Cosby legal drama unfolds this morning when the actor, for a second time in less than a year, fights charges he sexually assaulted a woman at his Cheltenham mansion in 2004.
After nearly a year of additional legal wrangling, Cosby, 80, will enter a Montgomery County courtroom today and face a jury of seven men and five women
that will ultimately determine his fate during a retrial that is expected to last about a month.
Cosby’s first trial last June ended in a mistrial when a jury — also comprised of seven men and five women — couldn’t reach a unanimous verdict. District Attorney Kevin R. Steele immediately called for a retrial.
The similarities between the current 12-person jury, selected over the course of four days last week, and the jury last June don’t end with gender. Like Cosby’s first jury, the current jury consists of 10 white jurors and two — one man and one woman — are African American jurors.
While the two juries are similar, the retrial promises to be starkly different from the one that played out last June.
This time out, Steele will be permitted to call up to five additional women, who accuse Bill Cosby of sexual misconduct between the years 1982 and 1996, to testify during the retrial at which Cosby faces charges he sexually assaulted one woman, Andrea Constand, a former Temple University athletic department employee, at his Cheltenham home after plying her with blue pills and wine sometime between mid-January and mid-February 2004.
During Cosby’s first trial last June, which ended in a mistrial after two weeks of testimony and deliberations, Judge Steven T. O’Neill permitted only one other accuser to testify.
Last week, O’Neill ruled that Marguerite “Margo” Jackson, described in court papers as “a friend and colleague” of Constand, can testify about an alleged discussion during which Constand told her she could fabricate a claim of sexual assault to “get money to go to school and open a business.”
Jackson’s claims initially came to light mid-trial at Cosby’s first trial last June. But at that time, O’Neill denied a request to admit the evidence after Constand claimed she did not remember Jackson and prosecutors argued Jackson’s testimony was hearsay.
Cosby’s lawyers revealed that the defense strategy at trial will be that Constand’s motive to accuse Cosby was greed.
In another key ruling for the retrial, the judge said evidence of an October 2006 civil settlement between Cosby and Constand, including a previously undisclosed monetary amount, is admissible evidence.
Evidence of the civil settlement was not part of the June 2017 trial.
This time out Cosby has an entirely new legal team led by Los Angeles lawyer Thomas Mesereau Jr., who successfully represented singer Michael Jackson on molestation charges in 2004. Mesereau is joined by co-defense lawyers Kathleen Bliss and Becky James.
Steele is joined on the prosecution team by coprosecutors M. Stewart Ryan and Kristen Feden, the same prosecutors who presented the evidence during the first trial.
The most dramatic moment of the retrial will come when Constand enters the courtroom to tell her story publicly for a second time and faces Cosby, whose legacy is on the line.
The retrial is expected to garner worldwide media attention.
The trial represents the first time Cosby, who played Dr. Cliff Huxtable on “The Cosby Show” from 1984 to 1992, has been charged with a crime despite allegations from dozens of women who claimed they were assaulted by the entertainer.
William Henry Cosby Jr., as his name appears on charging documents, faces three counts of aggravated indecent assault in connection with his alleged contact with Constand,
Constand didn’t report the incident to police until January 2005, about a year after it allegedly occurred.
After an investigation, in February 2005, then District Attorney Bruce L. Castor Jr. declined to file charges against Cosby, maintaining there was insufficient evidence to do so.
Prosecutors reopened the investigation of Cosby in July 2015 after Cosby’s deposition connected to the civil suit was unsealed by a judge. In that deposition, Cosby gave damaging testimony, allegedly admitting he obtained quaaludes to give to women with whom he wanted to have sex.
The charges were lodged against Cosby on Dec. 30, 2015, before the 12-year statute of limitations to file charges expired.
Cosby, who did not testify during the first trial, has maintained the contact he had with Constand was consensual. If convicted of the charges, Cosby faces a possible maximum sentence of 15 to 30 years in prison.
Cosby remains free on 10 percent of $1 million bail, pending the outcome of his trial.
The newspaper does not normally identify victims of sex crimes without their consent but is using Constand’s name because she has identified herself publicly.