Cosby Found Guilty on All Counts in Sexual Assault Retrial

Bill Cosby has been found guilty on sexual assault charges in a case that destroyed the legacy of one of America’s most influential comedians long before the verdict came down.Cosby, 80, was originally charged in 2015. He faced three counts of aggravated assault related to an encounter with a former Temple University employee, Andrea Constand, in his Cheltenham home. Bill Cosby’s Wife Accompanies Him to Closing Arguments He was accused of drugging and molesting Constand in 2004. During the trial, five other women testified to also having been drugged and assaulted by Cosby.The initial trial last year, also held at a courthouse in Norristown, Pennsylvania, garnered national attention. It ended in mistrial after the jury deadlocked. Cosby Jury to Decide: Serial Rapist or Con Artist’s Mark He now faces up to 10 years in prison on each count. It is not yet known if his attorneys will appeal the verdict.Both trials, which lasted a few weeks each, became media spectacles and attracted large numbers of detractors, and some supporters, of the elderly celebrity. His case played out during the rise of the #MeToo movement.  Cosby Defense Team Lobs Attacks in Court of Public Opinion During jury selection for the retrial, most prospective jurors acknowledged they knew of #MeToo.Kristen Houser of the National Sexual Violence Resource Center told the Associated Press that knowledge of the movement might change the way jurors in the first trial thought of the year it took for Constand to go to police with her accusations.”The #MeToo movement is amplifying what experts have been saying for decades: People are ashamed, they’re confused, they can’t believe somebody they trust would hurt them, and then they worry that others won’t believe them,” Houser said at the start of the retrial.The original trial and the subsequent retrial centered around a 2004 encounter between Cosby and Constand in the comedian’s Cheltenham home.In the second trial, five other women testified in addition to Constand. They also alleged during the trial that Cosby molested them as well.One legal scholar predicted prior to the retrial that the second attempt could be tougher for Cosby’s defense team.”You’ve seen previews and coming attractions, but things have changed,” said Loyola Law School Professor Laurie Levenson told the Associated Press prior to the retrial. This time, Constand “is not alone, and there is strength in numbers.”Constand, the former director of operations for Temple University women’s basketball, took the stand earlier in the trial. She detailed how she met Cosby, how they became friends and occasional dinner mates and eventually how she was allegedly drugged and sexually assaulted at Cosby’s Elkins Park home. The alleged drugging and assault took place in Jan. 2004.Over the course of roughly 16 months in 2003 and 2004, Constand and Cosby spent several evenings together — a mix of dinner parties with small groups and meet ups at places like Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut.Constand is a native of Canada now living in Toronto. She spent a little more than three years at Temple, where Cosby formerly served as a trustee and patron of the school’s basketball program. She is now a self-employed massage therapist.Cosby settled a civil lawsuit with Constand years ago. Unlike at the first trial, jurors at the retrial were allowed to hear some details about the $3.4 million settlment between the two.For years after the settlement a decade ago, the case was thought to be over. But in 2014, new attention to long-simmering allegations of Cosby’s use of quaaludes during encounters with women dating back to the 1960s re-emerged.In the years since, some 50 women have come forward with accusations of sexual malfeasance by Cosby dating as far back as 40 years.A different district attorney for Montgomery County, Risa Ferman, decided in 2015 to charge Cosby. After Ferman left the office to become a judge, her successor, Kevin Steele, pressed on with the case.The Philadelphia native rose to stardom in the 1970s with his stage performances, and he became a household name for his portrayal of Dr. Cliff Huxtable on “The Cosby Show” in the 1980s.Photo Credit: Matt Slocum/AP
Source: NBC San Diego