Cosby jurors sent home without verdict; will return for 5th day of deliberations
The jury in Bill Cosby's sexual assault trial went home for the night Thursday without issuing a verdict and will return Friday morning for the fifth day of deliberations.
The jury had said earlier Thursday that they were deadlocked, but Judge Steven O'Neill told them to keep deliberating.
Cosby is accused of drugging and molesting a woman in 2004, and is charged with three counts of aggravated indecent assault. Each carries a maximum 10-year prison term, though the counts could be merged at sentencing if he is convicted.
Cosby has denied the accusations. If a hung jury is declared, the district attorney will have to decide whether to go forward with re-trying the case.
Earlier Wednesday, Cosby's spokesman Andrew Wyatt has invited a family of four supporters to meet with the comedian as he awaits a jury's verdict at his suburban Philadelphia sexual assault trial.
Wyatt spotted Joe Molinaro, his wife and two children outside the Montgomery County Court House earlier in the week. He says he believed a chat with the family from Plymouth Meeting would brighten Cosby's spirits.
The couple and their 14-year-old son and 9-year-old daughter chatted with Cosby on Thursday in a room where he has been spending time while awaiting the jury's verdict.
Joe Molinaro says "it was very surreal" to meet "the big-time celebrity." He says Cosby was cute and clever with the children and talked to them in Italian.
The 79-year-old entertainer did not take the stand at his trial, but prosecutors used his deposition testimony -- given in 2005 and 2006 as part of Constand's civil suit against him -- as evidence.
Cosby has wavered between stoic and smiling as he awaits his fate, but gave a brief thumbs-up as jurors listened to a court reporter reread his January 2005 police interview.
In it, he claimed Constand showed no ill effects from the 1 1/2 Benadryl pills he gave her to help her relax, and that she never objected to his behavior during the 2004 encounter at his suburban Philadelphia home.
Her mother, Gianna Constand, pulled a cloth from her pocket to wipe away tears Wednesday as she listened to the testimony. Some jurors closed their eyes and tilted their heads down as they listened to the police interview. One slunk down in his seat, looking angry.
Constand testified last week that she was paralyzed by the pills and unable to fight Cosby off.
"In my head, I was trying to get my hands to move or my legs to move, but I was frozen," Constand, 44, testified June 6. "I wasn't able to fight in any way."
She added: "I wanted it to stop."
Cosby used his power and fame to violate Constand, an employee of Temple University's basketball program, prosecutors argued during the trial. But Cosby's lawyers maintain Constand was a willing sexual partner, and say Constand told a "stone cold lie."
Defense lawyer Brian McMonagle attacked what he said were inconsistencies in Constand's story, disputed that Constand was incapacitated, and made the case that she and Cosby, who was married, had a romantic relationship. Constand has denied that.
Cosby's spokesman released a statement Tuesday from a Temple University employee who claimed Constand told her of a plan to falsely accuse a "high-profile person" of sexual assault so she could sue and get money. A judge blocked the employee, Marguerite Jackson, from testifying at the trial, ruling it would be hearsay. Constand's lawyer's blasted the Cosby camp for releasing the statement.
Constand said on the witness stand she didn't know Jackson.