After completing two days of deliberations, a Pennsylvania jury on Thursday found Cosby guilty on all counts of drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand inside his suburban Philadelphia mansion in 2004.
The much-anticipated and long-awaited verdict represents the first- and possibly the last-criminal conviction for the disgraced comedian.
In December 2015, the 80-year-old comedian was first charged with three counts of aggravated indecent assaults mere days before the 12-year statute of limitation on the crime ran out.
Cosby then pleaded not guilty and claimed that the former Temple University staffer was his willing sex partner.
The 45-year-old Constand, however, gave a starkly different account during an emotional and sometimes grueling testimony spread over two trials almost a year apart.
Constand, a former Temple head of women’s basketball operations said she considered the comedian as “a mentor and father figure” even on the night he offered her three unidentified blue pills he referred to as “your friends.”
Constand told a jury in Norristown, Pa. composed of five women and seven men that she thought the pills were herbal remedies for stress and was stunned and confused when the drugs caused her words to slur and her vision to blur.
The victim also shared that she felt powerless when Cosby groped her breasts, penetrated her with his fingers and masturbated himself with her hand.
Two weeks ago, Constand said in her testimony: “I wanted it to stop. I was weak. I was limp, and I could not fight him off.”
The charges against the legendary comedian each carried a maximum sentence of up to 10 years in prison. But given Cosby’s advanced age at 80, his conviction could likely mean he’ll end up spending the rest of his life in jail.
Throughout the trial, Cosby’s lawyers argued that Constand was a “con artist” who only framed the “Cosby Show” star for money. They also said she has made a series of inconsistent statements and zeroed in on the $3.38 million settlement she received to end her 2005 lawsuit.
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Cosby, in the end, was convicted on the strength of his own words. The jurors heard the comedian himself admit to the police in an interview in 2005 that he gave Constand medication without explaining what it was for. They also heard that Cosby admitted during a follow-up civil disposition that he got seven prescriptions for quaaludes in the 1970s so he could give the now-banned sedative to women he is sexually attracted to.
At his first trial in June, a deadlock was reached after six days of marathon deliberations. This time, however, the sequestered jury reached its unanimous verdict after a 12-day trial that also included new testimony from five additional accusers, including former supermodel Janice Dickinson.
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in wake of the guilty verdict, they have pulled The Cosby Show reruns off the air. Bottom line is he was a creep and a rapist and I can't wait to see him in a prison jumpsuit
There is still no actual proof that he raped anyone, much less that the drugs were taken willingly by these whores who apparently didn't care about being "raped" until it was fashionable and profitable to do so decades later.
Cosby admitted during a follow-up civil disposition that he got seven prescriptions for quaaludes in the 1970s so he could give the now-banned sedative to women he is sexually attracted to.