Jurors take more time to decide on Cosby’s fate

NORRISTOWN, Pa. — The jury at Bill Cosby’s sexual assault trial deliberated without reaching a verdict yesterday 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 goodguy image.

A conviction could send Cosby to prison for the rest of his life, completing the stun- ning late-life downfall of one of the most beloved stars in show business.

Jurors got the case around 5.30pm and met for about four hours before knocking off late last night, with deliberations set to resume in the morning.

The fast-moving case went to the jury of seven men and five women on Day 6 of the trial after closing arguments gave differing portrayals of what happened between Cosby and Andrea Constand at his suburban Philadelphia estate.

Defence attorney Brian McMonagle told the jury that Cosby and Constand were lovers who had enjoyed secret “romantic interludes”, insisting 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.

Before asking to go back to their hotel Monday night, jurors wanted to see a portion of Cosby’s decade-old testimony from a civil suit filed against him by Constand.

They told the judge they wanted the “full context” of Cosby’s testimony about the pills he gave to Constand, which he had described to her as “three friends for you to make you relax”. – ANA-AP