It was a long, uphill battle, years in the making, but prosecutors in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, finally won the conviction on felony sexual assault charges of the man once revered as “America’s Dad.”
At the age of 80, Bill Cosby was convicted today on three felony counts of aggravated indecent assault stemming from drugging and molesting a woman in his suburban Pennsylvania home nearly 14 years ago.
As the verdict was read just before 2 p.m. in the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pennsylvania, Cosby leaned his head down, took a deep breath and appeared to close his eyes.
Cosby’s main accuser, Andrea Constand, and two other women who testified that Cosby also drugged and sexually assaulted them were in the courtroom and burst into tears as the verdict was announced.
“I feel like my faith in humanity has been restored,” one of the women, Lili Bernard, said after hearing the verdict.
The conviction came about 11 months after a mistrial was declared in Cosby’s first trial when a jury failed to reach a verdict.
The jury of seven men and five women began deliberating Wednesday and spent a little over 12 hours going over evidence presented to them more than two weeks before rendering their unanimous decision.
After the verdict was announced, Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele asked Judge Steven O’Neill to revoke Coby’s bail and send him to jail right away.
“I understand this is very serious … however, to ask to revoke the bail of individual … is your concern?” O’Neill asked Steele.
“Flight,” Steele said. “To any place. He has a plane.”
At that point, Cosby screamed out in a booming voice: “He doesn’t have a plane, you a——!”
Judge Steele ordered Cosby to surrender his passport but ruled he can remain free on $1 million bail until his sentencing later this year. He faces up to 30 years in prison.
Lead defense attorney Tom Mesereau said Cosby will appeal the conviction.
“We are very disappointed by the verdict,” Mesereau told reporters outside the courthouse. “We don’t think Mr. Cosby is guilty of anything and the fight is not over.”
Attorney Gloria Allred blasted Mesereau for attempting to undercut the credibility Cosby’s accusers by portraying them as liars out to frame the comedian. During the trial, Mesereau called Constand a “pathological liar” and a “con artist.”
“Tom Mesereau, you tried and failed,” Allred told reporters outside the courthouse. “Bill Cosby, I have three words for you: Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!”
Cosby declined to speak to reporters as he left the courthouse. He pumped his right fist in the air as a small crowd of supporters gathered nearby encouraged him to stay strong. He stuck his hand out the window of a black sport utility vehicle and waved at supporters as he was driven away.
Cosby was convicted of charges connected to the assault on Andrea Constand, a former director of operations for the women’s basketball team at Temple University, where Cosby was a trustee and major financial donor. Constand testified that Cosby knocked her out with a powerful drug and sexually assaulted her in 2004 at his home.
The prosecution was also allowed to call five other women to testify that Cosby assaulted them in the same manner.
