US jury to continue deliberations in Bill Cosby sexual assault retrial

NORRISTOWN, UNITED STATES

A US jury will deliberate for a second day Thursday in Bill Cosby's sexual assault retrial, tasked with deciding whether the disgraced megastar drugged and molested a young woman at his home 14 years ago.

The frail 80-year-old could spend the rest of his life behind bars if convicted on three counts of aggravated indecent assault against Andrea Constand, then a Temple University employee, in 2004.

JURY DELIBERATIONS

The sequestered Pennsylvania jury of seven men and five women spent more than 10 hours at work on Wednesday, and recalled the court three times to ask questions and make further clarifications.

Judge Steven O'Neill finally discharged them for the night at 9.33pm (0033 GMT Thursday) after spending an hour and 40 minutes reading out — as the jury requested — portions of Cosby's 2006 deposition.

Court will reconvene in Norristown, just outside Philadelphia, on Thursday for the jury to be read the testimony of the star defence witness, as also requested, before they resume their deliberations.

The now 13-day court case heard around two dozen witnesses and is the first celebrity trial of the #MeToo era that has seen a litany of powerful men lose their jobs over sexual misconduct accusations.

The defence mounted an aggressive case, portraying their multi-millionaire client as a misguided married man hoodwinked into a $3.38 million settlement by a con artist and pathological liar.

TANISHED LEGACY

The prosecution painted Cosby as the real "con," who exploited his fame as "America's Dad" to betray women's trust by drugging and sexually assaulting them against their will.

The case has forever tarnished the legacy of the actor once adored by millions for his role as lovable father and obstetrician Cliff Huxtable on the 1984-92 hit television series "The Cosby Show."

Cosby declined, again, to testify in court. His first trial ended in a hung jury in June with the sequestered panel hopelessly deadlocked after six days of testimony and 52 hours of deliberations.

This time the jury has much more testimony to consider.

CONSENT

The once pioneering African American actor claims he gave Constand, who is now a massage therapist in Toronto, an over-the-counter antihistamine to relieve stress and that relations were consensual.

Constand, who at the time was director of operations for women's basketball at Temple, says she passed out after Cosby gave her three blue pills, waking to find him penetrating her vagina with his fingers and making her masturbate his penis.

"I'm confident that you will come back and tell that man that what he did to Andrea Constand that night is against the law," prosecutor Kristen Feden told jurors on Tuesday.

Cosby's high-powered team urged the jury to acquit the actor on all counts and save a "distinguished" elderly man from "absolute ruin."

"You're dealing with a pathological liar, members of the jury, you are," said defence attorney Tom Mesereau.

‘DRUGGED WOMEN’

Their star witness, former Temple University employee Margo Jackson, claimed that Constand spoke of wanting to set up a celebrity for cash.

The prosecution brought five other accusers to testify that Cosby was a serial predator, first winning their trust then deliberately drugging them to make them incapable of resisting.

Prosecutors initially declined to press charges and Constand received $3.38 million in a civil settlement from Cosby in 2006.

The district attorney reopened the case in 2015, arguing new evidence had come to light, while an avalanche of women came forward publicly to accuse Cosby of around 40 years of assault.

Around 60 women have accused the Emmy winner of being a serial predator, but Constand's is the only case that happened recently enough to criminally prosecute.