April 26 (UPI) — A Pennsylvania jury found actor Bill Cosby guilty on charges he drugged and sexually assaulted a woman in 2004.
The jury convicted him on all three counts of aggravated indecent assault after 14 hours of deliberation.
Andrea Constand, the former women’s basketball team manager at Cosby’s alma mater, Temple University, said the actor gave her pills to help her relax while the two were alone at her Elkins Park, Pa., house. She said she became drowsy and unable to move, at which point Cosby touched her and forced her to touch him inappropriately.
Cosby, 80, faces up to 10 years in prison for each count, each of which could be served concurrently.
It was the second trial he faced for the charges; his first trial in 2017 ended in a mistrial due to a deadlocked jury. Some members of the jury took issue with a lack of physical evidence of the crime.
Cosby faced similar accusations from more than 50 women for incidents dating back to the mid-1960s. The judge in the Constand case allowed five of those women to testify on behalf of the prosecution.
In closing arguments earlier this week, Cosby’s attorneys took aim at the credibility of Constand and the other women who testified. Tom Mesereau called Constand a “pathological liar” and the other witnesses “failed starlets.”
Montgomery County prosecutor Kristen Feden took aim at Cosby’s wholesome image, referencing his role as Cliff Huxtable in “The Cosby Show.” She accused him of using that image to take advantage of women.
“This man is nothing like the image he played on TV,” she said during closing arguments. “He is nothing like ‘America’s Dad.'”
