Bill Cosby Found Guilty
A jury found Bill Cosby guilty Thursday of drugging and sexually assaulting a woman at his home 14 years ago.
On the second day of its deliberations, the jury returned to convict Mr. Cosby of three counts of aggravated indecent assault against Andrea Constand, who was a Temple University employee he had mentored.
The three counts — penetration with lack of consent, penetration while unconscious, and penetration after administering an intoxicant — are felonies, each punishable by up to 10 years in state prison, though the sentences could be served concurrently.
Several women who have accused Mr. Cosby of abusing them, and attended the trial each day, cheered, when the jury delivered the conviction. Steven T. O’Neill praised the jurors, calling it “an extraordinarily difficult case” and adding, “You have sacrificed much, but you have sacrificed in the service of justice.”
Mr. Cosby, 80, did not testify in his own defense, he and his lawyers have insisted that his encounter with Ms. Constand was part of a consensual affair, not an assault.