*Bill Cosby is said to be upbeat and hopeful while awaiting the jury’s verdict on three counts in his sexual assault trial.
“Mr. Cosby is in good spirits and feels that these jurors are highly intelligent and [he’s] hopeful they will make the right decision,” the actor’s spokesperson Andrew Wyatt said, according to Us Weekly.
“He’s just waiting like everyone else and looking forward to a positive outcome,” Wyatt told Variety in a brief interview.
The 79-year-old is charged with felony aggravated indecent assault of former Temple University basketball coach Andrea Constand. On the stand this week, Constand claimed “The Cosby Show” star drugged and sexually assaulted her at his Philadelphia-area home in 2004. Cosby who pleaded not guilty, has denied the accusations and claimed the sexual encounter was consensual.
Cosby could face up to 10 years in prison for each charge, but the sentences are usually allowed to be served simultaneously, the Associated Press reports. If found guilty, he will have to register as a sex offender.
The trial has been in the jury’s hands since Monday, June 12. Seven men and five women spent four hours deliberating on Monday. Today they asked Judge Steven O’Neill to read more excerpts from Cosby’s 2005 deposition about his relationship with Constand.
In a note to Judge O’Neill shortly before lunch, the jury asked for more definition of part of the third charge, which accuses Cosby of penetrating Constand’s genital area and states he “substantially impaired” her ability to control her conduct by administering drugs or other intoxicants “without the knowledge” of Constand.
The note focused on the phrase stating he had allegedly administered the drug “without the knowledge” of Constand.
In the deposition, Cosby said he gave her Benadryl, a non-prescription allergy medication as he and Constand talked in the kitchen of his home that night. “There was talk of tension, yes, about relaxing, and Andrea trying to relax the shoulders, the head, etc.,” Cosby stated in the part of the deposition read to the jury on Monday night.
Testifying in 2005, Cosby said he had obtained several prescriptions for Quaaludes in the 1970s and offered them to others “the same as a person would say, ‘Have a drink,’” according to the deposition, which was read to the jury.
“When you got the Quaaludes, was it in your mind that you were going to use these Quaaludes for young women that you wanted to have sex with?” Cosby was asked.
“Yes,” he replied.
Cosby had given the deposition as part of a lawsuit filed by Constand that was later settled for an undisclosed sum. His testimony was sealed for years until parts of it were released by a federal judge in 2015 at the request of The Associated Press.
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