Several weeks ago, the Bill Cosby trial began in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. Cosby stood accused of the alleged sexual assault of Andrea Constand. Constand was one of a group of more than sixty women who had come forward in the past two years to tell their stories of being drugged, assaulted and raped by Cosby. Some of the accusations were from the 1970s and ‘80s (beyond the statute of limitations), but Constand’s case is from 2004. This is the first time Cosby has ever faced criminal charges for his decades of abuse and assault. Constand claimed that Cosby drugged her and assaulted her at his mansion in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania in 2004, and Cosby was formally charged with second-degree felony in December 2015. You can read about Constand’s testimony here.
The trial ended up going on for five days, and Cosby’s defense only offered one witness before resting its case. Cosby never took the stand in his own defense, and the basic gist of the Cosby team’s cross-examination of the prosecution’s witnesses was basically like “Bill Cosby is a great guy, and everyone else is trash/lying/out to damage his reputation.” As it turned out, that strategy worked. After being deadlocked for a week, the jury was unable to come to any kind of agreement, even after the judge ordered them back into deliberations late last week. The judge declared a mistrial on Saturday. We don’t know how many jury members voted not guilty versus guilty, we only know that they couldn’t agree as a group. The Montgomery DA has already announced plans to retry the case:
DA Steele announces we will retry this case.
— Montgomery County DA (@MontcopaDA) June 17, 2017
William H. Cosby Jr. remains free on bail. New trial date will be set.
— Montgomery County DA (@MontcopaDA) June 17, 2017
Bill Cosby’s wife Camille issued a lengthy and abrasive statement, seemingly with the intention of intimidating other accusers from coming forward. She wrote:
“How do I describe the District Attorney? Heinously and explosively ambitions. How do I describe the judge? Overtly and arrogantly collaborating with the District Attorney. How do I describe the counsels for the accusers? Totally unethical. How do I describe many, but not all, general media? Blatantly vicious entities that continually disseminated intentional omissions of truths for the primary purpose of greedily selling sensationalism at the expense of a human life.”
“Historically, people have challenged injustices,” Camille said. “I am grateful to any of the jurors who tenaciously fought to review the evidence; which is the rightful way to make a sound decision….ultimately, that is a manifestation of justice, based on facts, not lies. As a very special friend once stated, ‘truth can be subdued, but not destroyed.’
[From People]
She also thanked her husband’s lawyers, who must have been shocked by the mistrial, I would think. Then again, maybe not. Maybe this is Trump’s America in a nutshell: it didn’t matter to those jurors that sixty women revealed decades of rape and sexual assault at the hands of Cosby. Even though their testimony wasn’t allowed into evidence, I guess those jurors were very “hear no evil” before they were selected for the jury. I shouldn’t paint them all with the same brush – for all we know, it could have just been one dude on the jury who will never believe a woman – any woman – when they tell their sexual assault story.
Photos courtesy of Media Punch/BACKGRID.
Source: celebitchy.com
No views yet
