Bill Cosby has been convicted of drugging and sexually assaulting former Temple University employee, Andrea Constand in January 2004.
Montgomery County jurors deliberated for about 14 hours over two days before handing down the guilty verdict, People News reports.
Cosby was convicted on three charges, each of which carries a prison sentence of 10 years: aggravated indecent assault: penetration with lack of consent; penetration while unconscious; and penetration after administrating an intoxicant.
Prosecutors alleged that he assaulted Constand, now 44, in his Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, mansion in January 2004.
The defense countered that the sexual contact was consensual. Both sides presented 12 days of testimony and evidence to the seven-man, five-woman jury.
Prosecutors portrayed Cosby as a serial sexual predator who deceived people with his persona as “America’s Dad,” while his defense has said that women have fabricated their accounts.
It was the second time that a jury has deliberated Cosby’s fate. Last summer, another jury spent six days before they announced they were unable to come to a consensus. Judge Steven T. O’Neill ruled that they were hopelessly deadlocked and declared a mistrial.
More than three years ago, Cosby was in the midst of a career comeback of sorts: He was traveling the country on a comedy tour, exploring a new TV show with NBC and had a Netflix comedy special in the works.
Then on Oct. 16, 2014, comedian Hannibal Buress performed a comedy routine at a Philadelphia nightclub in which he called Cosby a rapist.
Philadelphia Magazine posted a video clip and wrote about it on the magazine’s website the next day. The routine went viral on social media.
Within weeks, Cosby’s Netflix deal was on hold, his NBC show was killed, several future dates on his comedy tour were canceled and TVLand pulled re-runs of The Cosby Show.
Credit: People News
