NORRISTOWN, Pa. _ Bill Cosby's fate is now in the hands of a jury, after lawyers on both sides of his sex assault trial delivered impassioned closing arguments Monday to the seven men and five women who will determine the verdict.
Cosby lawyer Brian J. McMonagle described sexual assault allegations from dozens of other women and a worldwide media scandal as the real reasons that his client now sits in court facing charges that a decade ago a previous prosecutor had concluded wouldn't hold up.
But Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin R. Steele attempted to focus attention back on the trial's central accuser, Andrea Constand, calling her a victim who showed great courage and withstood hours of questioning on the witness stand.
The closing arguments capped a weeklong trial against the entertainer, accused of aggravated indecent assault for drugging and molesting Constand in his Cheltenham home in 2004. The sequestered jury from Allegheny County is expected to begin deliberations Monday evening, after Judge Steven T. O'Neill instructs them on the law in the case.
In his two-hour final pitch to jurors, McMonagle painted Constand as a liar who badly damaged her credibility with conflicting statements to police when she first came forward in 2005.
McMonagle described his own client as a philandering husband, but an overly forthcoming one whose own statements about Constand have remained entirely consistent over 12 years _ no matter how damaging they have been to his reputation.
"We're not here for Andrea Constand. We're here for them and them," McMonagle said, his voice rising as he gesticulated toward rows filled with reporters and a few of Cosby's other accusers. "See this for what it is. Stop this!"
McMonagle's impassioned plea began with an extended appeal to the jury's emotions, referencing everything from to the adoration with which children look at their parents and the honor of military service to concerns about the future of the nation and lofty paeans to the nobility of the jury's role in the American justice system. He said Constand has given "one inconsistent statement after another," questioning why she told police at various points in 2005 that she had never been alone with Cosby prior to her alleged assault, that she never contacted him again after and that her assault had happened in March 2004 _ all claims she would later revise before her testimony last week.
Steele, on the other hand, stuck largely to providing legal definitions and rehashing the evidence presented in the case. But he too raised his voice at times during his more than two-hour closing argument. And he grew emotional when speaking about Constand, and accused Cosby's lawyers of attempting to shame and exploit her.
"I would suggest to you that Andrea Constand is a real victim," he said. "She is a victim who has come before you and bared something very personal and powerful for all to see."
Steele said the key facts were not contested during the trial, and have remained consistent in Constand's various statements over time: Cosby got to know her and became a mentor; one night in 2004 he gave her pills at his Cheltenham home and they had a sexual encounter.
"She's (passed) out and you're doing stuff to her?" Steele said. "It's not right. And it's criminal."
The arguments came after the defense on Monday called just a single witness at the start of the second week of the trial. And it wasn't the defendant.
Sworn in briefly outside the presence of the jury, Cosby told O'Neill that he did not intend to testify. Instead, his team called one brief witness _ Cheltenham police Sgt. Richard Schaffer, the lead investigator in the case who testified for the prosecution last week.
Cosby's wife, Camille, appeared in court for the first time Monday morning, entering and exiting on her husband's arm and sitting through McMonagle's closing argument. Constand also attended the closing arguments, and showed little reaction. Toward the end of McMonagle's speech, she placed her palms together in front of her face, as if praying. During Steele's final talk to the jury, her mother Gianna sat with her.
Cosby, 79, could receive a decade or more in prison if convicted.
