With the magical word his defense longed to hear for nearly 18 months —”mistrial” — William Cosby, American icon branded as a heartless sex offender, left court a free man after the jury failed to bring back a verdict, stating they were deadlocked at 11 a.m Thursday.
Jurors were instructed to continue deliberating despite their deadlock.
Judge Steven O’Neill declared a mistrial Saturday after jurors failed to return a unanimous verdict for the second time, following the weeklong trial alleging the 79-year-old comedian, Bill Cosby sexually assaulted and drugging former Temple University employee Andrea Constand more than a decade ago.
Court was back in session just before 9 p.m. when Judge Steven O’Neill ruled the Commonwealth’s case against Cosby a mistrial.
During Constand employment at Temple University as the director of operations for the women’s basketball team, she met Cosby, an alumnus of the Philadelphia college.
Constand alleges that Cosby made sexual advances on multiple occasions and that she turned them down. But Constand is accusing Cosby of drugging and sexually assaulting her during one specific visit to his home sometime between mid-January and mid-February 2004.
The jurors deliberated for nearly 48-hours when they notified the court that they were unable to reach a unanimous verdict. Judge O’Neill asked them to return to the deliberation room to try and reach a verdict, however, nothing changed when the jury spent an additional 10 hours in the deliberation room.