A juror in the Bill Cosby sexual assault case has revealed the votes, and behind-the-scenes tensions, of the deadlocked jury.
After deliberating for over 50 hours, the jury was unable to reach a verdict on any of the three counts of aggravated indecent assault with which Cosby was charged. His accuser, Andrea Constand, alleges Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted her at his home in 2004.
According to a juror who spoke with ABC News, 10 out of 12 jurors found Cosby guilty on the first and third counts: That Cosby was guilty of penetrating Constand without her consent, and that the assault took place “after Cosby gave Constand drugs or intoxicants without her knowledge, substantially impairing her for the purpose of preventing her resistance.”
But only one juror believed Cosby was guilty on the second count: That Cosby assaulted Constand while she was “unconscious” or while he knew she was “unaware that the penetration is occurring.”
During deliberations, the jury asked for the definition of “without her knowledge.” Constand did know that she took pills — that is, the drugs weren’t surreptitiously slipped in her drink — but she says she did not know what the pills were. On the night of the alleged assault, Cosby did not tell Constand what the pills were and referred to them only as “three friends to help you relax.” Cosby maintains that he gave Constand one and a half Benadryl, though in a phone conversation with her mother which was read aloud in court, Cosby said that the pills were a prescription, though he couldn’t remember what kind.
Constand testified that she felt “frozen” during the alleged assault. “I was trying to get my arms to move. I was trying to get my legs to move — and the messages didn’t get to them.” Cosby did not take the stand.
The juror, who spoke with ABC News on the condition that they not be identified, said the the two jurors against Cosby’s guilt on counts one and three were “not moving, no matter what.” Before deliberations began, the juror said, the jurors all voted to find Cosby not guilty; 30 hours later, many, but not all, had changed their minds. The last 22 hours of deliberation changed nothing: “There was no budging.”
Jurors had to be moved from a larger space to a small room where there wasn’t even room to “pace,” the juror said, when it became apparent that reporters could see into the first room through a window. One male juror, in an especially tense moment, reportedly punched the concrete wall. ““If we kept going, there was definitely going to be a fight.”
Within minutes of Judge Steven O’Neill declaring a mistrial, district attorney Kevin Steele announced he would retry Cosby.
