New Sexual Assault Trial For Bill Cosby Set For November
NORRISTOWN, Pa. (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Bill Cosby will face a new trial on sexual assault charges in November.
A judge issued an order Thursday scheduling a new trial for Monday, Nov. 6 at 9 a.m., at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pennsylvania.
Last month, a judge declared a mistrial after jurors failed to reach a unanimous decision in a case that helped destroy the 79-year-old comedian's image as "America's Dad."
Prosecutors vowed to try again, declaring the woman who accuses Cosby of drugging and molesting her at his Philadelphia-area home in 2004 is "entitled to a verdict."
Jurors last month deliberated more than 52 hours over six days before telling a judge they couldn't agree on whether "The Cosby Show" star drugged and molested Temple University employee Andrea Constand at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004. The judge then declared a mistrial.
But the comedian's career and good-guy image were already in tatters by the time his chief accuser took the stand and described how Cosby gave her pills and then penetrated her with his fingers as she lay paralyzed on a couch, unable to tell him to stop.
It was the only criminal case to arise from allegations from more than 60 women that cast Cosby — married more than 50 years — as a serial predator who gave drugs to women before violating them.
He did not take the stand in his own defense, leaving it to his attorney to argue Cosby and Constand were lovers sharing a consensual sexual encounter. Lawyer Brian McMonagle told jurors that while Cosby had been unfaithful to his wife, he didn't commit a crime.
Cosby broke barriers as the first black actor to star in a network show, "I Spy," in the 1960s and created the top-ranked "Cosby Show" two decades later, starring as kindly Dr. Cliff Huxtable. He found success with his "Fat Albert" animated TV show and starred in commercials for Jell-O pudding.
But it was his reputation as a public moralist who urged young people to pull up their saggy pants and start acting responsibly that prompted a federal judge to unseal portions of an explosive deposition he gave more than a decade ago as part of Constand's civil lawsuit against him.
In the deposition, released in 2015 at the request of The Associated Press, Cosby said he obtained several prescriptions for quaaludes in the 1970s and offered the now-banned sedatives to women he wanted to have sex with.
He also said he gave Constand three half-tablets of the cold and allergy medicine Benadryl before the "petting" began. Prosecutors suggested he drugged her with something stronger.
Constand, 44, initially went to police about a year after she said Cosby assaulted her, but a prosecutor declared her case too weak to bring charges.
A decade later, a new district attorney reopened the investigation after Cosby's lurid testimony about drugs and sex became public, and dozens of women came forward against one of the most beloved stars in all of show business. He was charged shortly before the statute of limitation was set to expire.
(© Copyright 2017 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
