A juror in Bill Cosby’s recent criminal trial for aggravated sexual assault 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 Montgomery County Judge Steven O’Neill declared a mistrial on Saturday morning.
Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele said he intends to retry the 79-year-old comedian on three counts of aggravated sexual assault stemming from a 2014 encounter with former Temple University employee Andrea Constand. Cosby, who remains free on bail, faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.
Although more than 60 women have come forward to make similar sexual assault claims against Cosby, the juror said that the other panelists would “cut them off” if somebody mentioned a case that was not presented at trial. “We never brought anything outside in,” the juror said.
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,” repeatedly denied the allegations, calling the sexual encounter consensual; he declined to testify in his own defense at trial.