Cosby faces November retrial on sex assault charges
NORRISTOWN » Comedian Bill Cosby will be back in a Montgomery County courtroom before Thanksgiving on charges he allegedly sexually assaulted a woman at his Cheltenham mansion.
Judge Steven T. O’Neill on Thursday set Nov. 6 as the day Cosby, who is charged with three felony counts of aggravated indecent assault, is to be back in court. O’Neill ordered Cosby, his defense team and prosecutors to appear in court on that date and to “remain available until the conclusion of the case unless excused by the court.”
“The attorneys are directed to properly notify any necessary witnesses and to have them available to testify when needed,” O’Neill wrote.
The judge directed the lawyers to submit to him, in writing, any proposed jury selection questions and jury instructions no later than Oct. 30.
It’s unclear if court officials will return to Pittsburgh to select another jury. Jurors for the first trial were selected in Pittsburgh due to pretrial publicity in the Montgomery County region.
Cosby’s first trial ended in a mistrial on June 17 when a jury of seven men and five women selected in Allegheny County could not reach a verdict after listening to five days of testimony from a dozen witnesses. Jurors, after a marathon 52 hours of deliberations over six days, told the judge they were “hopelessly deadlocked on all counts.”
Immediately after O’Neill declared a mistrial, District Attorney Kevin R. Steele vowed to retry Cosby, who turns 80 on July 12.
William Henry Cosby Jr., as his name appears on charging documents, is accused of drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand, the former director of women’s basketball operations at Temple University, at his Cheltenham mansion in mid-January 2004. Cosby remains free on 10 percent of $1 million bail, pending the retrial.
Cosby faces a possible maximum sentence of 15 to 30 years in prison if convicted of the charges.
After the mistrial was declared, Steele said Constand “has shown such courage through this” and is prepared to move forward with a retrial.
During the first trial, prosecutors alleged Cosby was a trusted friend and mentor who took advantage of a woman in a “vulnerable state,” plied Constand with “three blue pills” and sexually assaulted her at his Cheltenham mansion.
Constand, 44, of Ontario, Canada, testified over two days that after taking the blue pills she began slurring her words and became “frozen” or paralyzed and was unable to fight off Cosby’s sexual advances. Constand claimed Cosby placed her on a couch, touched her breasts, forced her to touch his penis and performed digital penetration all without her consent.
But defense lawyers Brian J. McMonagle and Angela C. Agrusa argued Cosby was the victim of false accusations and that the entertainer and Constand had a “romantic relationship” and consensual sexual contact during the 2004 incident. At one point during the trial, McMonagle stood beside Cosby and suggested to jurors that while Cosby may have been an unfaithful husband, that didn’t make him a criminal.
The trial represented 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.