Cosby holdouts prevented guilty verdict, juror says
In an exclusive interview with ABC News, a juror in the Bill Cosby sexual assault
case said that after dozens of hours of grueling deliberations in a
tiny room, 10 of the 12 jurors agreed he was guilty on two counts. On a
third count, only one of the jurors believed he was guilty.
The final, intractable votes on the first of the three counts was 10 to two to find Cosby guilty of digitally penetrating accuser Andrea Constand without her consent, the juror said. On the second count, that she was unconscious or unaware during the incident, the juror said the vote was 11 to one to acquit. On the third count, that the alleged assault occurred after Cosby gave Constand drugs or intoxicants without her knowledge, substantially impairing her for the purpose of preventing her resistance, the jury was deadlocked at 10 to two, in favor of a guilty verdict, according to the juror.
On counts one and three, the two holdouts against finding Cosby guilty were “not moving, no matter what,” said the juror, who agreed to speak to ABC News only on the condition of anonymity.
Other jurors contacted by ABC News declined to comment.
Cosby, 79, had been charged in 2015 with three counts of felony aggravated indecent assault stemming from a 2004 incident involving Constand at his home in Pennsylvania. Constand testified during the six-day trial that the comedian gave her a drug that rendered her incapable of stopping his alleged assault, though she said she tried. Though Cosby did not take the stand, he said in a decade-old deposition that he gave Benadryl to Constand to "relax" her, and then the two had a consensual sexual encounter. He pleaded not guilty to the felony charge, and denied wrongdoing in other accusations made against him.
The juror said that accusations by dozens of other women against Cosby were not factored into the deliberations at all, and when someone tried to discuss anything outside the boundaries of the trial testimony and evidence, the others would swiftly end the discussion.
“We never brought anything outside in,” the juror explained. “Never. Not once. If somebody would mention something, we would cut them off.”
The jurors initially voted overwhelmingly, in a non-binding poll, to find the entertainer not guilty on all three counts of aggravated indecent assault, the juror told ABC News on Monday.
The final, intractable votes on the first of the three counts was 10 to two to find Cosby guilty of digitally penetrating accuser Andrea Constand without her consent, the juror said. On the second count, that she was unconscious or unaware during the incident, the juror said the vote was 11 to one to acquit. On the third count, that the alleged assault occurred after Cosby gave Constand drugs or intoxicants without her knowledge, substantially impairing her for the purpose of preventing her resistance, the jury was deadlocked at 10 to two, in favor of a guilty verdict, according to the juror.
On counts one and three, the two holdouts against finding Cosby guilty were “not moving, no matter what,” said the juror, who agreed to speak to ABC News only on the condition of anonymity.
Other jurors contacted by ABC News declined to comment.
Cosby, 79, had been charged in 2015 with three counts of felony aggravated indecent assault stemming from a 2004 incident involving Constand at his home in Pennsylvania. Constand testified during the six-day trial that the comedian gave her a drug that rendered her incapable of stopping his alleged assault, though she said she tried. Though Cosby did not take the stand, he said in a decade-old deposition that he gave Benadryl to Constand to "relax" her, and then the two had a consensual sexual encounter. He pleaded not guilty to the felony charge, and denied wrongdoing in other accusations made against him.
The juror said that accusations by dozens of other women against Cosby were not factored into the deliberations at all, and when someone tried to discuss anything outside the boundaries of the trial testimony and evidence, the others would swiftly end the discussion.
“We never brought anything outside in,” the juror explained. “Never. Not once. If somebody would mention something, we would cut them off.”
The jurors initially voted overwhelmingly, in a non-binding poll, to find the entertainer not guilty on all three counts of aggravated indecent assault, the juror told ABC News on Monday.
Deliberations
effectively ended after the jury first deadlocked after 30 hours of
deliberations, but the jury pressed on for 22 more hours before giving
up hope of unanimous resolutions on any of the three counts.
Comments
Post a Comment