Bill Cosby Returns to Montgomery County Court for Retrial
The highly anticipated sexual assault retrial for Bill Cosby is about to begin this morning after a jury failed to come up with a verdict on the same charge last year.
The TV comedian will once again face the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas located in Norristown, Pennsylvania on Monday, April 9, for a retrial due to three charges of aggravated indecent assault that allegedly happened in 2004.
Reports revealed that the incident happened between Cosby and a former Temple University basketball manager named Andrea Constand outside his residential property in Philadelphia in early 2004.
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Constand claimed that she was drugged and molested, but the 80-year-old actor and musician defended himself and mentioned that he only gave her cold medication during that time and their sexual encounter was consensual.
The accuser claimed that she reported the encounter to police one year after the incident, but the district attorney during that time refused to prosecute due to lack of forensic as well as other evidences. This prompted Constand to file a case against Cosby in civil court where he answered the allegations in a deposition.
Both parties agreed to a settlement in 2006, but the details surrounding the settlement remained sealed.
While the first trial ended in a mistrial on June 17 after the jurors failed to reach a unanimous decision about his innocence or guilt in the sexual assault case after six days of hearing the testimonies and five days of deliberations. Because of this, the prosecutors declared that they will put him in a second trial.
USA Today talked to a criminal defense attorney Jonathan Mandel about which party will have an advantage in a retrial. The former prosecutor and ex-public defender said that the party which got the most juror votes in the first trial has an advantage in the retrial. But since the votes of the first trial were mixed, either side can benefit from the presentation of more pieces of evidence in the retrial.
"Some of the jurors said there was a 10-2 split for conviction, which would obviously indicate the prosecution would have an easier road," Mandel stated. "Other jurors reported an almost even split, which would indicate an advantage to the defense since half of the jury viewed the case as weak. ... (But) predictions based on the first trial are problematic since the evidence in the retrial may be vastly different," he went on to say.
Judge Stephen O' Neil will still preside the retrial, as well as District Attorney Kevin Steele. But aside from Cosby's spokesperson Andrew Wyatt, the actor will come back with a new legal team that will be led by celebrity lawyer Thomas Mesereau, the same person who defended Michael Jackson in his own sexual assault case.
The scheduled retrial will also have a new set of jurors composed of 12 individuals, including seven men and five women. Ten of which were white while two were black, which means that it is similar to the first set of jury that reached a deadlock verdict.
More details about Cosby's sexual assault retrial are expected to be revealed in the coming days.
