Bill Cosby sexual assault trial: Jury requests another look at Cosby's interview with police
— -- The jury in the Bill Cosby sexual assault trial, now more than 20 hours into deliberations, asked the judge earlier today to hear portions of accuser Andrea Constand’s testimony from last week and read-backs of police testimony about Cosby's 2005 interview with police at his attorney's New York law office.
The jury has been deliberating since Monday in the Norristown, Pennsylvania court.
Constand testified for more than seven hours over two days last week, resulting in more than 300 pages of trial transcript. The jury requested that a portion of Constand's comments about the night of the alleged attack be read back to them.
The jury is weighing three counts of aggravated indecent assault, each carrying a maximum 10-year sentence, against Cosby and will decide whether the comedian sexually assaulted Constand in 2004. If convicted, he will be required to register as a sex offender. He has pleaded not guilty in the Constand case and has repeatedly denied allegations of wrongdoing.
Earlier this week, the jury also asked the judge to reread Cosby's decade-old comments about his relationship with Constand and have revisited the testimony of a Canadian officer who took the initial police report from Constand in 2005. Other questions included further definition of one of the counts Cosby is facing, which pertains to whether Cosby gave her a substance "without [her] knowledge" for the purpose of "preventing resistance."
Cosby claimed in a deposition, taken in 2005 and 2006 for a civil lawsuit that was later settled, that he gave Benadryl to Constand to help her relax and enjoy a consensual sexual encounter.
She testified last week that he gave her a substance that incapacitated her and then sexually assaulted her.
Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele closed the prosecution's case on Monday by describing Cosby — who turns 80 next month — as a calculating sexual predator. Brian McMonagle, one of Cosby's lawyers, highlighted Constand's inconsistencies. The defense also poked holes in the account of Kelly Johnson, who took the stand last week on Constand's behalf, citing discrepancies in her testimony that she was drugged and sexually assaulted by Cosby in 1996.
