Bill Cosby guilty of sexual assault, jury rules as trial ends

Bill Cosby arrives for his sexual assault trial, Wednesday, April 25, 2018, at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown.(MATT ROURKE / AP)

Story by Philadelphia Inquirer
Written by Jeremy Roebuck & Laura McCrystal

A Montgomery County jury has found Bill Cosby guilty of the only criminal charges to emerge from a career-ending scandal fueled by dozens of women who accused the entertainer once known as “America’s Dad” of sexual assault.

After about 13 hours of deliberation, the panel of seven men and five women on Thursday convicted him of drugging and assaulting Andrea Constand, a former Temple University employee who said she had seen Cosby as a father-figure and mentor until the early 2004 night that he accosted her at his Cheltenham Township home.

The 80-year-old entertainer could face up to 10 years in prison. As the jury decision was announced Cosby offered little visible reaction, but gazed down at the defense table, looking sullen; his spokesman leaned forward, his head in his hands.

The verdict cause some of the defendants accusers in the packed courtroom to let out audible sighs of relief, a few began to loudly sob and were removed.

“This has been an extraordinarily difficult case,” Judge Steven T. O’Neill told the jurors, Montgomery County residents who had been sequestered most of the month, as he thanked them for their service. “You have sacrificed much but you have sacrificed it in service to this country, this county and this town. And that is important.”

The verdict delivered the first celebrity conviction of the #MeToo era in a case that in many ways stood at its vanguard and shone a spotlight on the role sexual entitlement, a scandal-hungry media and Hollywood’s casting couch culture played in the ruin of a comedy icon.

But in the end, it was the 13-year-old account of one of Cosby’s very first accusers that now threatens to send him to prison, potentially for the rest of his life.

The decision — guilty on three counts of aggravated indecent assault stemming from the attack on Constand — was announced in a packed Norristown courtroom.

The outcome represented vindication for the 45-year-old Canadian massage therapist, whose story was rebuffed first in 2005 by prosecutors who doubted she could stand up to courtroom scrutiny and then last year by another jury that was unable to unanimously agree about her claims.

It also delivered a victory to Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin R. Steele who through two trial has come under attack from Cosby, his wife and a defense team that accused him of corruptly targeting an innocent man to feed his own political ambitions.

Still, Steele vowed to press on after Cosby’s first trial in June resulted in a hung jury and mistrial and returned to court April 9 with a case that was in many ways stronger than before

O’Neill is expected to sentence Cosby at a later date.

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/video/bill-cosby-found-guilty-accusers-speak-after-verdict-1219967043526