Bill Cosby Criminal Retrial Set for November

Actor’s sex assault trial ended with a hung jury in June

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Bill Cosby will return to court in Pennsylvania on November 6 to face a retrial on criminal charges that he drugged and sexually assaulted a former Temple University worker, the Associated Press is reported Thursday.

Montgomery County Judge Steven O’Neill declared a mistrial on June 17 after jurors deadlocked after deliberating for six days.

In the first trial, Cosby was tried on three felony accounts of aggravated sexual assault stemming from an encounter with Andrea Constand, who claimed she was molested by the comedian in 2004 at his home outside Philadelphia.

Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele vowed after the mistrial that he would retry the 79-year-old comedian.

Cosby remains free on bail. He faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

A juror in Bill Cosby’s first criminal trial said that 10 of the 12 panelists agreed the comedian was guilty on two of the felony accounts against him but the two holdouts were “not moving, no matter what.”

In an interview with ABC News, the juror — who declined to be identified by name — also said that the 12-person panel took a non-binding poll early in the deliberations in Norristown, Pennsylvania, and the vote was overwhelmingly to acquit the star on all three counts.

But after 30 hours of deliberations, the jury told the court it was deadlocked — with all but two jurors angling for conviction on two of the felony counts. On the third count, that accuser Andrea Constand was unconscious or unaware during the 2004 incident, the jury was leaning 11 to 1 to acquit, the juror said.

From the announcement of the first deadlock last Thursday, the juror told ABC News, “There was no budging … and there was none from there on out.”

Still, the jury continued deliberations for another 20 hours until Judge O’Neill declared a mistrial in June.

Constand had testified that Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted her at his mansion in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania. She claimed Cosby gave her wine and three pills, causing her to pass out, and then “sexually violated” her.

Cosby, a beloved TV star once hailed as “America’s Dad,” publicly denied the allegations, calling the sexual encounter consensual, but declined to testify in his own defense at trial.

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