Breaking: Bill Cosby guilty of sexual assault, lawyer vows appeal
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when she came to she said cosby was penetrating her vagina with his fingers groping her breasts and making her masturbate him1 disgraced television icon bill cosby was convicted thursday of sexual assault by a us jury losing a year-long legal battle that was made tougher at retrial as the first celebrity trial of the metoo era1 his lawyer vowed that the battle is not over as he would appeal1 im the happiest ive ever been about any court decision in 42 years said lawyer gloria allred who represents 33 cosby accusers1 constand was in the packed courtroom in norristown just outside philadelphia as the verdict was read out to stifled sobs in the gallery1 a criminal conviction and possible prison term is a devastating final chapter in the career of the once towering figure in late 20th century american popular culture the first black actor to grace primetime us television who hit the big time after growing up as the son of a maid1 the jury which deliberated for more than 14 hours over two days found him guilty on all three counts of aggravated indecent assault. cosbys first trial ended in june last year with a hung jury1 the three counts constituted penetration without constands consent which took place both while she was unconscious and after she had been drugged. each count carries a maximum penalty of 10 years1 the pioneering african american actor and entertainer adored by millions for his seminal role on the cosby show sat in silence as the jury foreperson read out the verdict1 but after the jury was led out the emmy winner dogged for years by allegations of similar assaults made by dozens of women erupted in an expletive-laden tirade as prosecutors argued he was a flight risk1 the verdict was a vindication for the prosecution after cosbys first trial ended with the sequestered jurors hopelessly deadlocked after 52 hours of deliberations1 it also ended a winning streak for los angeles lawyer tom mesereau who leapt to fame for getting michael jackson acquitted of child molestation in 2005 but who ultimately failed to deliver for cosby1 a case with no physical evidence the trial essentially boiled down to he-said she-said hinging on how credible the jury found 45-year-old constand a former basketball player turned massage therapist1 the canadian woman said she went to cosbys home to discuss her impending resignation as director of operations for womens basketball at temple university where he was on the board of trustees1 the actor offered her three blue pills to help take the edge off which she took believing they were a natural remedy1 i trusted him constand said. but within minutes she developed double vision started slurring her words and lost consciousness1 the frail 80-year-old cosby once beloved as americas dad could now spend the rest of his life behind bars when he is sentenced for drugging and molesting andrea constand at his philadelphia mansion in january 20041 i was limp and i could not fight him off she said1 when constand first reported the assault the district attorney at the time initially refused to press charges1 prosecutors reopened the case in 2015 nearly a decade after she signed a 3.4 million settlement with cosby in 2006 claiming that new evidence had come to light just as other accusers came forward1 around 60 women many of them onetime aspiring actresses and models came forward publicly to brand him a calculating serial predator who plied victims with sedatives and alcohol to bed them over four decades1 crucial to the second trial was judge steven oneills decision to let five other women testify how cosby had preyed on them in a similar manner to demonstrate common plan scheme or design1 inability to consent1 prosecutors said cosby used his fame to gain the trust of unsuspecting women time and time again and deliberately drugged constand so that she would be unable to resist his advances1 this case is about trust betrayal and the inability to consent kristen feden told jurors tearing into the defenses vicious and filthy character assassination attempts against cosbys accusers1 she turned on its head the defense claim that constand was a con artist who pursued a grieving father mourning his sons murder and old enough to be her grandfather for a big payout1 the perpetrator of that con shouted feden in dramatic and emotional closing remarks. that man she shouted pointing at cosby1 mesereau and former federal prosecutor kathleen bliss sought an aggressive defence that portrayed constand as a money-grabbing opportunist who lied to extricate herself from financial worries1 youre dealing with a pathological liar said mesereau branding the 2006 settlement one of the biggest highway robberies of all time1 but ultimately the panel of five women and seven men were unconvinced1 hanging over the entire trial was the cultural watershed of the metoo movement which since last october has seen a litany of powerful men from harvey weinstein to kevin spacey lose their careers1 experts had suggested that changing attitudes towards sexual assault could make jurors more inclined to believe female victims1