The disgraced actor was convicted on three counts of aggravated indecent assault in a Pennsylvania court on Thursday, April 26.
- May 1, 2018
AceShowbiz - Bill Cosby's own deposition in his sexual assault trial was enough to convince jury members he was guilty of drugging and forcing himself upon Andrea Constand, according to one juror. The disgraced actor was convicted on three counts of aggravated indecent assault in a Pennsylvania court on Thursday, April 26, for his January, 2004 attack on Constand, a former employee at Cosby's alma mater, Temple University.
She claimed the funnyman had drugged and assaulted her at his home in the state.
The jurors deliberated for almost 15 hours over two days before announcing the verdict, and on Monday, April 30, jury member Harrison Snyder explained it was Cosby's own words which sealed his fate in the criminal retrial.
During an interview on breakfast show "Good Morning America", Snyder insisted he "didn't know anything" about the case before the trial, as he never watches the news, and confessed he only knew Cosby was an actor, but was a "little too young" to remember his groundbreaking 1980s sitcom "The Cosby Show".
Snyder never considered the allegations to be an "open-and-shut case" before the trial, and revealed it wasn't the testimonies given in court by five of Cosby's other alleged victims, including former supermodel Janice Dickinson, which swayed the jury, instead pointing to the comedian's previous confession about using powerful sedatives during his youth to sleep with ladies he found attractive.
"I think it was his deposition, really," the 22-year-old juror said. "Mr. Cosby admitted to giving Quaaludes to women, young women, in order to have sex with them."
The actor's statement was recorded more than a decade ago, as part of a civil suit Constand had filed against him and settled in 2006. His testimony was unsealed in 2015, prompting prosecutors to reopen the sexual assault case.
Cosby always maintained the sex he had with Constand was consensual.
Snyder also brushed off suggestions the verdict is a reflection of the impact of the #MeToo movement against sexual misconduct, which only hit headlines in October (17), months after the judge declared a mistrial in prosecutors' first attempt at holding Cosby accountable for the 2004 incident.
In fact, Snyder had no idea about the #MeToo movement until after the trial had concluded.
"I only found about it after I got home and looked online to see what everything was," he shared. "I didn't even know about the #MeToo movement."
Meanwhile, Snyder and his fellow jurors have also released a joint statement addressing the #MeToo claims: "We were asked to assess the credibility of Ms. Constand's account of what happened to her, and each one of us found her account credible and compelling," it reads.
"[We have] absolutely no reservations and are walking away with (a) sense of peace, knowing we performed our duty in the manner it deserved."
Cosby, who is current on house arrest as he awaits sentencing, faces up to 10 years behind bars for each count.
.@ABC EXCLUSIVE: Inside the Cosby deliberations.
— Good Morning America (@GMA) 30 April 2018
Harrison Snyder, a juror in the trial, speaks out to our @LinseyDavis after last week's verdict: https://t.co/MhqQqcHz0spic.twitter.com/E6OGrvJ95C
His lawyers are planning to appeal the conviction.
