Bill Cosby is neither guilty or acquitted after a Pennsylvania judge declared a mistrial on Saturday, leaving it up to prosecutors who have already said they’ll retry his case.
After multiple days and 50 hours of deliberation, the jury of seven men and five women declared it was “hopelessly deadlocked” on all three charges of aggravated sexual assault against Cosby, who is accused of drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constant at his Elkins Park mansion in January 2004.
The comedian was charged in 2015, pleaded not guilty to the charges and insisted that their sexual contact was consensual. Constant denied this.After the judge, Steven O’Neill, announced his decision on Saturday, he said the jury’s actions were “probably one of the most courageous acts, selfless acts I’ve ever seen in the justice system”. Pennsylvania criminal defence lawyer, Ed Paskey, told The Washington Post that prosecutors factor in many things before they decide to retry a case. “There’s a phrase that’s often repeated, that the evidence rarely gets any better after the first trial for the prosecution,” he added.
Although they made a swift decision to retry the 79-year-old, prosecutors have up to four months to officially file for retrial, according to the newspaper. And whilst Cosby did not comment outside court, a publicist did read a blistering statement from his wife Camille, who had been in court during one day of the trial.
In the statement, which Bill Cosby later tweeted, she attacked Judge O’Neill, described him as “overtly arrogant” and accused him of “collaborating with the district attorney”. She also described the prosecutor as “heinously and exploitively ambitious.”
Cosby’s lawyer, Brian McMonagle, added: “There were no winners here, but like the song goes, you don’t always get what you want but if you try sometimes you get what you need.”
