Cosby judge tells jury to keep deliberating
— -- The jury in Bill Cosby's sexual assault case returned to court Friday for the fifth straight day of deliberations, and was told by the judge to deliberate as long as needed.
"In a case of ... this magnitude, the longest this jury wants [and] continues to deliberate I will allow them," Judge O’Neill said.
On Thursday the jury told the judge it was deadlocked on a verdict. The 12 jurors were instructed to continue examining the evidence.
After being asked yet again for a mistrial by Cosby's defense team, the judge said he'll "act" if they come back again deadlocked.
Jurors today also had several requests, including the definition of "reasonable doubt" and hearing excerpts of the sealed testimony from the comedian's 2005-2006 civil trial with Constand.
They specifically asked for the testimony where Cosby admits to giving women prescription Quaaludes before sleeping with them in the 1970s.
They also came back and asked for Constand's phone records from the time in question and testimony from Constand's mother, who took the stand last week.
The comedian is accused of drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand in 2004.
Cosby, 79, has been charged with three counts of aggravated indecent assault, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $25,000 fine. The comedian has pleaded not guilty and has repeatedly denied allegations of wrongdoing.
Since the prosecution and defense teams rested their cases last Friday and Monday respectively, the jury has revisited several moments from the trial, including quotes from Cosby's deposition about his encounter with Constand and her original police report to police in Canada in January 2005.
Jurors asked earlier in the week for clarity around the language of count three, which pertains to whether Cosby administered "drugs, intoxicants or other means for the purpose of preventing resistance" without Constand's knowledge.
If a unanimous verdict on any of the three counts cannot be reached, the judge could declare a mistrial.
In the case of a mistrial, the Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, district attorney could choose to retry the case, but it's unlikely that prosecutors would move immediately for an retrial, according to a spokeswoman for the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office.
Cosby has claimed he gave Benadryl to Constand over a decade ago to help her relax before a consensual sexual encounter. However, Constand has accused Cosby of giving her pills that incapacitated her and rendered her unable to stop his advances.
"In my head I was trying to get my hands to move or my legs to move, but I was frozen and those [mental] messages didn't get there and I was very limp, so I wasn't able to fight him anyway," she testified last week. "I wanted it to stop."
