Closing arguments portray Cosby as predator, victim
NORRISTOWN, Pa. — The jury in Bill Cosby’s sexual- assault retrial will begin deliberating Wednesday after a searing day of closing arguments in which the comedian was variously portrayed as a calculating predator who is finally being brought to justice, or the victim of a multimillion- dollar frame- up by a “pathological liar.”
The first big celebrity trial of the # MeToo era pits Cosby, the 80- year- old former TV star whose career and good- guy reputation were destroyed by a barrage of allegations involving drugs and sex, against Andrea Constand, a former Temple University women’s basketball administrator who testified that he drugged and sexually violated her at his suburban Philadelphia mansion 14 years ago.
Five other women got on the witness stand and testified the same thing had happened to them.
“The time for the defendant to escape justice is over. It’s finally time for the defendant to dine on the banquet of his own consequences,” prosecutor Stewart Ryan told the jury.
Cosby faces three counts of aggravated indecent assault, each carrying up to 10 years in prison. The jury at his first trial deliberated for over six days last year without reaching a verdict.
Defense attorneys Tom Mesereau and Kathleen Bliss said in their closing argument that Constand consented to sexual activity, then leveled false accusations against the “Cosby Show” star so she could sue him and extract a big settlement.
Constand received nearly $ 3.4 million from Cosby over a decade ago.
Constand, 45, alleges Cosby knocked her out with three pills he called “your friends” and molested her in January 2004.