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AAfter two days of deliberations, during which they reached verdicts on almost every issue put to them, a jury decided in a civil trial on allegations of sexual abuse Bill Cosby have to start from scratch on Monday.
Until the end of Judgment Day Friday the Los Angeles District The jury agreed on whether Cosby had sexually assaulted the plaintiff Judy hat In the Playboy Mansion when she was 16 in 1975, and whether Huth deserved damages. In all, they had answered eight of nine questions on their sentencing form, all but one addressing whether Cosby had acted in a manner that should require punitive damages.
Judge Craig Karlan, who had promised a juror that she could leave after Friday for a prior engagement when she agreed to serve, decided over objections from Cosby’s attorneys to accept and read the verdict on the questions answered by the jury. But of course he had to change when the MPs changed Santa Monica Courthouse appeared and asked him to clear the courtroom. The courthouse has a required closing time of 4:30 p.m. as there is no budget for MPs overtime
Karlan refused to ask the outgoing juror, who had been selected as foreman, to return on Monday, leaving the jury to start over with an alternate in her place.
“I will not break my word,” Karlan said.
Bizarre end of deliberations
It was a bizarre end to a strange day of jury deliberations. It began with a note to the judge about what he called “personality problem‘ between two of the jurors, which made their job difficult.
After calling the courtroom and agreeing that each juror would be heard in the discussions, the jury proceeded but had a constant barrage of questions about issues with their sentencing form for the judge and attorneys to discuss and answer. One question concerned damage calculation.
Attorney Cosby after lunch Jennifer Bonjean was moved to a mistrial over a photograph taken by a member of Cosby’s team showing a juror standing in close proximity to a Cosby prosecutor who had been sitting in the audience watching the trial.
Karlan said the photo did not show a conversation taking place and was quick to dismiss the mistrial motion, assuring the juror in question and then the full jury that no one had discussed the case with them.
The Accuser, artist from Los Angeles Lili Bernhardwho filed her own lawsuit against Cosby in New Jersey, denied speaking to a jury.
“I’ve never spoken to a jury,” Bernard told the judge from her seat in the courtroom. “I would never do anything to jeopardize this case. I don’t even look at them.”
Karlan struggled to get through the hurdles and keep the jury deliberating as long as possible, keeping lawyers, reporters and courtroom clerks ready to flee as soon as a verdict was read, but it was unsuccessful in the end.
The jury began deliberating Thursday morning after a two-week trial.
Bill Cosby freed from prison
Cosby, 84, when he was released from prison Pennsylvania criminal conviction was thrown out almost a year ago, did not participate. He denied any sexual contact with Huth in a clip from a 2015 Video deposition shown to jury. The denial was repeated throughout the trial by his spokesman and his attorney.
In contentious closing arguments, Bonjean urged the jury to put behind the public allegations against Cosby and to consider only the evidence from the trial, which, in her opinion, came nowhere near proving Huth’s case.
Huth’s lawyer Nathan Goldberg told the jury Cosby should be held accountable for the harm he caused his client.
That Associated Press does not usually name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly, as Huth and Bernard did.
