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Bill Cosby’s conviction overturned: timeline of events leading up to the actor’s release

 


NORRISTOWN, PA – The highest court in Pennsylvania dismissed Bill Cosby’s sexual assault conviction and paved the way for his immediate release from prison on Wednesday in an astonishing reversal of fortune for the comedian once known as “America’s Dad”, ruling that the prosecutor who brought the case was bound by his agreement. predecessor not to indict Cosby.

Cosby, 83, served more than two years of a three- to ten-year sentence after being convicted of drugging and raping Temple University sports administrator Andrea Constand at his suburban home of Philadelphia in 2004.

He was the first celebrity tried and sentenced in the #MeToo era.

Here’s a look back at some of the key events that led to Cosby’s conviction and release:

2002

Cosby meets Andrea Constand at Temple University in Philadelphia, her alma mater, where she manages the women’s basketball team and he serves as a celebrity booster and administrator. (The Associated Press does not generally identify people who claim to be victims of sexual assault, but Constand has agreed to have his name used.)

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2004

JANUARY: Cosby drugs and attacks Constand in his suburban Philadelphia home, according to his testimony in last year’s trial. The defense claims that all sex was consensual and took place earlier. Timing is important because Cosby was charged just days before the statute of limitations came into effect. Cosby said he gave her three blue pills for stress relief before lying on the couch with her and engaging in sex acts. Cosby was 66, Constand was 30.

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2005

JANUARY: Constand, now back home in the suburbs of Toronto, tells his mother that something happened with Cosby. They go to the police, who offer to record it during a phone call. During the call, Cosby said he was engaged in “digital penetration” but declined to say which pills he gave her. The case is referred to authorities in Pennsylvania. Cosby’s attorney, Walter Phillips, calls the allegations “patently bizarre.”

FEBRUARY: Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce Castor announces he will not charge Cosby. He considers the case to be weak, citing Constand’s one-year delay, Constand’s continued contact with Cosby and the failure of other accusers who now come forward for filing a police complaint.

MARCH: Constand sues Cosby for sexual violence and defamation.

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2006

NOVEMBER: Cosby settles the case after testifying for four days about his relationships with young women over a 50-year span. A confidentiality agreement prevents either party from discussing the matter.

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2014

OCTOBER: Comedian Hannibal Burress calls Cosby a rapist in a stand-up act filmed and shared online. More and more women accuse Cosby of assaulting them.

DECEMBER: The Associated Press calls for documents from Constand’s 2005 trial to be unsealed. Cosby fights the demand.

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2015

JULY: US Judge Eduardo Robreno grants PA’s motion, stating that “the stark contrast between Bill Cosby, the public moralist and Bill Cosby, the subject of serious allegations of improper conduct (and possibly criminal), is an issue in which the PA – and by extension the public – has a significant interest. “The documents include excerpts from testimony in which Cosby admits giving a series of women pills and alcohol before sexual intercourse.

AOT: Montgomery County authorities are reopening the 2005 criminal case, knowing the 12-year statute of limitations for aggravated sexual assault has yet to expire.

DEC. December 30, 2015: Cosby is arrested, pleads not guilty, and is released on million dollar bail.

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2017

JUNE 5: Cosby is on trial. In his opening statement, a prosecutor warns the jury that Cosby is not the character he plays on television. The defense strikes back by attacking Constand’s credibility. The only other accuser allowed to testify at trial, Kelly Johnson, describes an assault she says took place in 1996 at a hotel bungalow in Los Angeles.

JUNE 6: Constand testifies that Cosby gave her pills that made her dizzy, then penetrated her with his fingers as she lay paralyzed on a couch, unable to tell him to stop. “In my head, I was trying to move my hands or my legs, but I was frozen,” she says. “I wanted this to stop.”

JUNE 7: Constand resists hours of cross-examination, dismissing any suggestion that she and Cosby shared a romantic relationship before the night she says he assaulted her.

JUNE 8: Jurors hear grim testimony from ten-year-old Cosby in which he admitted to qualifying the women he wanted to have sex with and describes how he touched Constand’s body during their intercourse: “I can’t hear her say anything. And I can’t feel her say anything. And so I go on and enter the area that’s somewhere between permission and rejection. I’m not stopped.

JUNE 17: Jurors report they are at a desperate stalemate, prompting the judge to declare the trial overturned after more than 52 hours of deliberation over six days. Prosecutors immediately announce that they will put him to trial a second time.

AOT: Cosby is hiring new lawyers, including Tom Mesereau, the leading lawyer who secured an acquittal in Michael Jackson’s child abuse case.

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2018

JANUARY: Cosby has performed in public for the first time since the scandal broke in 2015, taking the stage for about an hour at a Philadelphia jazz club.

MARCH: Judge Steven O’Neill agrees to let five more accusers testify at the retrial, giving prosecutors the opportunity to portray Cosby as a serial predator who drugged and assaulted women. The defense argues that “old allegations” would confuse, distract and prejudice the jury.

APRIL 3: Judge gives Cosby’s legal defense a huge boost by saying they can call a witness, Marguerite Jackson, who says Constand spoke of setting up a celebrity before she files allegations of sexual abuse against Cosby in 2005. The judge is also aiding the defense in ruling that jurors can hear how much Cosby ultimately paid Constand in the 2006 civil settlement.

4-5 APRIL: A jury of seven men and five women – including 10 white, two black – is seated. Three of the six alternates are black.

APRIL 26: Jury finds Cosby guilty of three counts of aggravated indecent assault.

SEPTEMBER 25: Cosby was sentenced to 3 to 10 years in state prison.

Earlier in his sentencing hearing, Cosby was declared a “sexually violent predator,” a classification that means he will be considered a sex offender and will have to follow counseling for the rest of his life.

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2020

JUNE: In a stunning decision that could test the legal framework for #MeToo cases, Pennsylvania’s highest court reviewed the trial decision to let five other accusers testify at Bill Cosby’s 2018 sexual assault trial, which ended with the conviction of the longtime television star.

The Supreme Court has agreed to consider two aspects of the case, including the judge’s decision to let prosecutors call the other accusers to testify about long-standing encounters with the actor and comedian. Cosby’s lawyers had long complained that the testimony was distant and unreliable.

The court also considered Cosby’s argument that he had an agreement with a former prosecutor that he would never be charged in this case. Cosby said he relied on the purported promise before agreeing to give the deposition at the trial of accuser Andrea Constand.

In his first big interview in six years, Camille Cosby broke her silence after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court agreed to hear part of her husband Bill Cosby’s appeal to quash his 2018 sexual assault case.

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2021

MAY: Cosby has been denied parole after refusing to participate in sex offender programs behind bars. He has long said he would resist treatment programs and refuse to admit wrongdoing even if it means serving the 10-year sentence.

JUNE: Pennsylvania’s highest court dismissed Bill Cosby’s sexual assault conviction and paved the way for his immediate release from prison on Wednesday in a startling reversal of fortune for the comedian once known as “America’s Dad,” holding that the prosecutor who brought the case was bound by his predecessor’s agreement not to charge Cosby.

Four judges formed the majority which ruled in favor of Cosby, while three others dissented in whole or in part.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Copyright 2021 KABC-TV. All rights reserved.

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