NORRISTOWN, Pa. — On the third day, jurors in the Bill Cosby trial asked to rehear large chunks of testimony, dined on stromboli, and fought fatigue during an evening read-back.
What they didn’t do was reach a verdict.
Consensus eluded the panel as an air of weariness set in. The men and women who must decide if Cosby drugged and molested Andrea Constand in 2004 have now spent 28 hours reviewing evidence or deliberating.
They asked for so much testimony to be read back that the court reporter couldn’t keep up. The judge ordered a dinner break — “You ordered hot stromboli, not cold stromboli,” he joked — while she transcribed the requested excerpts.
Then, for nearly an hour, she read aloud the testimony Detective Richard Schaffer gave last week about Cosby’s 2005 police interview. Some jurors rubbed their eyes or fidgeted as they listened.
Cosby bobbed his head and gave a thumbs up as the court reporter recited answers he gave Schaffer more than a decade ago after Constand told police that the comedian sexually assaulted her.
Earlier, the jury wanted to review the testimony that Constand gave on the stand about the encounter. The judge and the attorneys reviewed 300 pages of transcript before choosing which sections the panel would hear again. Deliberations resume at 9 a.m. Thursday.
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Dennis McAndrews, a former Pennsylvania prosecutor who has been attending the trial, said Wednesday's requests could be encouraging to prosecutors because they suggest the jury is sharply focused on what happened between Constand and Cosby at his house in 2004.
"Where there’s inconsistencies, as a prosecutor you want the focus on when [the victim] is consistent. And where she was consistent was with the actual incident," McAndrews said.
During the trial, the defense focused on discrepancies in Constand's accounts to police about whether she had been alone with Cosby before the night in question and how much contact she had with him afterward.
I'm Cosby, 79, who says the contact with Constand was consensual, has pleaded not guilty to three counts of aggravated indecent assault. They are the only criminal charges stemming from dozens of allegations of sexual misconduct, all of which he vigorously denies.
Keshia Knight Pulliam, who played the star's daughter Rudy on "The Cosby Show" and escorted him to court on the first day of trial, said he remains "upbeat" despite the protracted deliberations.
"I was grateful to see his spirit hasn't been broken as part of this process," Pulliam said Wednesday on TODAY.
She said that she will accept whatever verdict the jury delivers. If he's found guilty, she said, "I'll be disappointed. However, it won't change the love."
