The Trentonian (Trenton, NJ)

Jury questions posed during Bill Cosby’s sex assault trial

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The jury in Bill Cosby’s sexual assault trial deliberate­d for a fifth day Friday. A day earlier, the judge told jurors to keep trying to reach a unanimous verdict after declaring themselves deadlocked.

The sequestere­d jury of seven men and five women have paused deliberati­ons nine times to revisit testimony or ask for clarity on the phrasing of the charges. Cosby is charged with sexually assaulting Andrea Constand at his home in suburban Philadelph­ia in 2004. The 79-year-old comedian says the encounter was consensual.

Here’s what the jury asked to be reread or explained:

MONDAY

• The full context of the portion of Cosby’s decade-old testimony in which he said he told Constand the pills he gave her, before their 2004 sexual encounter, were “friends.”

• More than a dozen excerpts from Cosby’s deposition, including the “friends” comment and his acknowledg­ment that he’d gone “somewhere between permission and rejection” during a previous encounter with Constand.

TUESDAY

• The meaning of the phrase “without her knowledge” in one of the three counts against him. Judge Steven O’Neill told the jury he could not provide additional informatio­n.

• Testimony from the Canadian officer who took the accuser’s first police statement, about a year after the sexual encounter.

WEDNESDAY

• The portion of Constand’s seven hours of trial testimony during which she talked about the night she says Cosby drugged and sexually violated her.

• A 2005 police interview during which Cosby acknowledg­ed giving her pills and fondling her, along with related testimony from the suburban Philadelph­ia detective who read it into the record.

THURSDAY

• The jury tells the judge that it “cannot come to a unanimous consensus on any of the counts.” Judge Steven O’Neill reads what’s known as a “dynamite” charge to remind them of their duty to try to find consensus, and he tells them to keep trying.

FRIDAY

• A definition of “reasonable doubt.”

• About a dozen excerpts from Cosby’s deposition testimony in which he talks about obtaining quaaludes to give to women he wanted to have sex with.

• The portion of Constand’s testimony where she talks about telephone calls she made to Cosby after she says he drugged and violated her. They withdrew a request for related phone records.

• The portion of her mother’s testimony where she talks about a 2.5-hour phone conversati­on with Cosby, about a year after the alleged assault. In the call, Gianna Constand said Cosby apologized and described himself as a “sick man.”

• A sliver of Gianna Constand’s testimony that the jury had just heard. O’Neill refused the request, telling the panel to use its collective recollecti­on.

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