Bill Cosby found guilty of sexual assault in retrial
I guess someone will be having pudding in jail:
Bill Cosby, who once embodied the idealized American father on a wildly popular sitcom, was convicted of sexual assault on Thursday in a high-stakes retrial after a half-dozen women testified that the famed comedian drugged and assaulted them.
The jury returned with the guilty verdict Thursday afternoon after a second day of deliberations in which the judge read back testimony of the defense's star witness, who testified that Cosby’s main accuser once said she could frame a “high-profile person.”
The jury was also read back Cosby's deposition testimony from 2005, where the comedian admitted to giving a woman Quaaludes in order to have sex with her.
Cosby, 80, faces a maximum sentence of 10 years and a fine of up to $25,000 on each count.
The verdict was a victory for the #MeToo movement, which has exposed sexual harassment and misconduct in entertainment, media, politics and beyond.
Cosby, who has faced dozens of sexual misconduct allegations spanning decades, was charged with three counts aggravated indecent assault against one woman, Andrea Constand, 45, who claimed that Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted her in his home in January 2004. Cosby's first trial ended in a mistrial in June.
Cosby, who has repeatedly denied all the allegations against him, has said the sexual encounter with Constand was consensual.
A few hours after deliberations began Wednesday, the jury returned to the courtroom to ask, "What is the legal definition of consent?"
But Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge Steven O'Neill said that he couldn't give jurors a legal definition, telling them that was something they would have to answer on their own, using their own "common sense."
The verdict marked a dramatic culmination of an 18-year case that spanned two criminal trials and multiple police investigations.
