The jury in the Bill Cosby
Attention focuses on what he said about encounter
sexual assault case weighs charges that could send him to prison for the rest of his life. A3
NORRISTOWN, Pa. — Jurors in the Bill Cosby sexual assault case, weighing charges that could send him to prison for the rest of his life, drilled down Tuesday on what the TV star said happened inside his suburban Philadelphia home and how he characterized his relationship with the accuser.
But they didn’t come up with a verdict, leaving them tired and spent after a long day in the jury room.
The jury ended a second day of deliberations without reaching a decision on whether Cosby drugged and molested a woman at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004, quitting for the night around 9 p.m. Jurors have spent a total of about 16 hours over two days discussing the case and going over evidence with the judge.
“You’ve sent word: You’re exhausted,” said Judge Steven O’Neill, dismissing the panel until Wednesday morning.
On Tuesday, the jury reviewed more than a dozen passages from a deposition Cosby gave in 20052006, listening to excerpts on a wide range of topics, from Cosby’s first meeting with Andrea Constand to the night in 2004 when she says he drugged and violated her.
As he described reaching into Constand’s pants, Cosby testified, “I go into the area that is somewhere between permission and rejection. I am not stopped.”
Cosby is charged with drugging and molesting Constand, 44. His lawyer has said they were lovers.
The 79-year-old entertainer did not take the stand at his trial, but prosecutors used his deposition testimony — given as part of Constand’s civil suit against him — as evidence.
As they pored over Cosby’s words, the jurors appeared to struggle with some language in one of the charges against him: “without her knowledge.” The jury asked about the phrasing Tuesday morning, but O’Neill said he could not define it for them.
The jury is considering three counts of felony aggravated indecent assault. The third count covers Cosby’s alleged use of pills to impair Constand before groping her breast and genitals.
Outside the courthouse, Constand’s lawyers blasted the Cosby team Tuesday for releasing a statement from a woman who had been blocked from testifying at the trial.
Cosby’s spokesman, Andrew Wyatt, read the statement from longtime Temple University official Marguerite Jackson, who said Constand told her of a plan to falsely accuse a “high-profile person” of sexual assault so she could sue and get money.
A judge blocked Jackson from taking the stand, ruling it would be hearsay. Constand said on the witness stand she did not know Jackson.
Constand’s lawyer, Dolores Troiani, told reporters that Jackson is “not telling the truth” and faulted Wyatt for circulating Jackson’s statement while jurors were deliberating.
Jackson stood by her account, telling The Associated Press in a phone interview that Cosby’s lawyers are “going to say whatever they need to say.”