GUILTY VERDICT
Jury convicts Bill Cosby of drugging and molesting woman
NORRISTOWN » Entertainer Bill Cosby bowed his head but showed no emotion as a jury of Montgomery County residents delivered a devastating blow to his legacy, convicting him of drugging and sexually assaulting a woman at his Cheltenham mansion in 2004.
The jury of seven men and five women deliberated about 14 hours over two days before convicting Cosby on Thursday of three felony counts of aggravated indecent assault in connection with sexually assaulting Andrea Constand, a former Temple University athletic department employee, after plying her with “three blue pills,” at his mansion in January 2004.
Cosby, 80, remained calm as each juror was polled about the verdict. But the man known as “America’s Dad,” angrily lashed out at District Attorney Kevin R. Steele when the county’s top law enforcement officer sought to revoke Cosby’s bail, suggesting the actor had an airplane he could use to flee.
“He doesn’t have a plane, you (expletive),” Cosby shouted in the courtroom, shocking spectators who packed inside to witness the verdict.
Judge Steven T. O’Neill rejected Steele’s request and said Cosby can remain free on his current bail, 10 percent of $1 million, to await sentencing. A sentencing date has not yet been set. Cosby faces a pos-
sible maximum sentence of 15 to 30 years in prison on the charges. However, state sentencing guidelines could allow for a lesser sentence.
“I’m not going to simply lock him up now. At this stage, this bail has been sufficient,” said O’Neill, who received assurances from Cosby’s lawyers that Cosby’s passport previously was surrendered to authorities.
Addressing Cosby, O’Neill said, “You are not to leave this commonwealth. You are not to leave this county without further court action.”
It was the second trial for Cosby. Cosby’s first trial last June ended in a mistrial when a jury selected from near Pittsburgh couldn’t reach a verdict.
With the verdict, the latest jury found that Cosby sexually assaulted Constand while she was unconscious and without her consent.
Steele, flanked by Constand and co-prosecutors Kristen Feden and M. Stewart Ryan, said Constand came to the county for justice and the jury provided it.
Steele, during a news conference, thanked the jurors for “their diligence and sacrifices they made” during the 14-day trial.
“We’re finally in a place to say that justice was done. We have shown from our record that money and power or who you are will not stop us from a criminal investigation or prosecuting a case,” Steele said.
“What was revealed through this investigation was a man who had spent decades preying on women that he drugged and sexually assaulted and a man who had evaded this moment here today for far too long,” Steele added on Thursday. “He used his celebrity. He used his wealth. He used his network of supporters to help him conceal his crimes. Now, we know who the real Bill Cosby was.”
Steele, his voice quivering with emotion at times, characterized Constand as “a courageous person” who stood up in public against Cosby.
“Her courage, her resilience, in the face of horrible, unfounded attacks upon her and her family, has been so inspiring to the hopeless,” Steele said.
During the retrial, Steele was permitted to call five additional women, who accused Cosby of sexual misconduct between the years 1982 and 1996, to testify, including model Janice Dickinson, who testified Cosby raped her during a 1982 meeting in his hotel room in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. During Cosby’s first trial last June, O’Neill permitted only one other accuser to testify.
“We are humbled by the courage that all of them showed,” Steele said.
As the verdict was announced, several other women who accuse Cosby of uncharged sexual conduct and who were in the courtroom, wept uncontrollably and hugged one another.
“Justice has been done! We’re very, very happy and proud of this result,” wellknown celebrity lawyer Gloria Allred, who represents many of the other accusers, said after the verdict. “In the beginning, many were not believed. We are so happy that finally we can say, women are believed and not only on #MeToo but in a court of law … and we thank the jury so much for that. And yes, the MeToo movement has arrived and is well and is living in Montgomery County and throughout this nation and throughout this world.”
Allred read statements from some of the five other accusers who testified during the trial, including Janice Baker-Kinney, a former bartender at Harrah’s casino in Reno, Nev., who testified Cosby had sexual contact with her during a pizza party at a guest house in 1982.
“I am overwhelmed with joy, relief and gratitude, joy that finally justice has been served, relief that the years of this toxic chain of silence has been broken and we can now move forward with our heads held high,” Baker-Kinney said in a statement read by Allred.
As the verdict was announced, scores of local residents, activists with bubbles and signs supporting victims of sexual assault and throngs of media crowded the steps and sidewalk outside the courthouse waiting for the trial’s players to emerge. Media helicopters hovered overhead. Passersby in vehicles honked horns, apparently welcoming the verdict.
When Cosby, who reportedly is legally blind, emerged with his legal team and publicists, he did not comment but held his hand high at one point. Lead defense lawyer Thomas Mesereau Jr. only said that Cosby will appeal the conviction.
During the trial, Steele, Feden and Ryan described Cosby as a trusted mentor who betrayed the friendship he had with Constand and said the criminal case was “about trust…about betrayal.” Prosecutors alleged Cosby plied Constand with “three blue pills” and proceeded to sexually assault her while she visited his home to discuss her career.
Prosecutors argued Constand did not have the ability to consent to sexual contact.
Constand, 45, of Ontario, Canada, testifying 7½ hours over two days last week, said after taking the blue pills she began slurring her words and was unable to fight off Cosby’s sexual advances. The former director of women’s basketball operations at Temple University claimed Cosby guided her to a couch, where she passed out.
Constand testified she was “jolted” awake to find Cosby touching her breasts, digitally penetrating her and forcing her to touch his penis, all without her consent.
Constand didn’t report the incident to police until January 2005, about a year after it occurred. Constand was 30 and Cosby was in his 60s at the time of the assault.
Cosby, who did not testify during his first trial or at the retrial, maintained the contact he had with Constand was consensual.
During the retrial, Mesereau, who successfully represented singer Michael Jackson on molestation charges in 2004, portrayed Constand as greedy and “a pathological liar” who had a financial motive to lie about a sexual assault.
For the first time publicly, it was revealed during the trial that Cosby entered into a $3,380,000 civil settlement with Constand in October 2006. Judge O’Neill ruled that evidence of the civil settlement between Cosby and Constand was admissible evidence at the criminal trial.
Evidence of the civil settlement was not part of Cosby’s first trial in June 2017.
The defense team’s star witness was Marguerite “Margo” Jackson, a onetime Temple University colleague of Constand, who testified that she had a discussion during which Constand told her she could fabricate a claim of sexual assault against a high-profile person to “get money.”
But prosecutors attacked Jackson’s credibility, implying two statements Jackson made about the alleged conversation with Constand were inconsistent and that her testimony could not be trusted.
In addition to calling Jackson as a witness, Mesereau and co-defense lawyers Kathleen Bliss and Becky James used travel and phone records of both Cosby and Constand to suggest that the alleged assault could not have occurred when Constand said it did.
The trial represents the first time Cosby, who played Dr. Cliff Huxtable on “The Cosby Show” from 1984 to 1992, had been charged with a crime despite allegations from dozens of women who claimed they were assaulted by the entertainer.
After Constand reported the allegations in January 2005, an investigation began but 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 portions of Cosby’s deposition connected to the civil suit was unsealed by a judge. In that deposition, Cosby gave damaging testimony, admitting he obtained quaaludes to give to women with whom he wanted to have sex. Some of that deposition testimony was heard by the jury.
The charges were lodged against Cosby on Dec. 30, 2015, before the 12-year statute of limitations to file charges expired.