The juror who spoke to the AP questioned the long delay in bringing charges against the TV star, suggesting that “no new evidence from ’05 to now has showed up, no stained clothing, no smoking gun, nothing.”
In reality, prosecutors reopened the investigation in 2015 after the public release of a deposition that Cosby gave in 2005 and 2006 as part of accuser Andrea Constand’s lawsuit against him — testimony that hadn’t been offered when another district attorney passed on the case in early 2005. Prosecutors used Cosby’s deposition as evidence at the criminal trial.
This juror also told the AP that he believed that people in the deliberation room were certain that “politics” were “involved” in the case. The juror described his perception of Constand’s testimony, believing it was inconsistent, though the AP again points out the fact that the juror’s perception of events is what’s inconsistent:
“When you ask for help on your resume, on your resignation letter, which she did, and he, Mr. Cosby, invites her to his home and she arrives in a bare midriff with incense and bath salts, that’s a question,” said the juror, appearing to lump several meetings between Cosby and Constand into one.
The details of Constand’s bare midriff come from Cosby’s deposition, in which he detailed putting his hand on her stomach, and not hearing any objection, took that as a sign he could sexually assault her at another time. The bath salts reference comes from Constand’s testimony, in which she was asked about why, when she approached Cosby to confront him about the assault, she brought them as a gift. Constand explained the bath salts were from a mutual friend, and she was just delivering them. Either way, these two incidents and the assault took place at different times, despite the juror’s confusion.
Philly.com has their own report of an anonymous juror, who sounds like the exact same one, because he has a similar misunderstanding:
“She was well-coached,” he said of Constand’s two days on the witness stand. “Let’s face it: She went up to his house with a bare midriff and incense and bath salts. What the heck?”
This juror also expressed that they believed the reason the jury deadlocked was because the language explaining the charges against Cosby were “too legal.”
Though in an earlier interview a (probably different) jury member stated that they were not allowed to discuss other accusations about Cosby during deliberations, this juror definitely thinks a lot of the allegations are made up, saying, “I think more than half jumped on the bandwagon.”
He also brings up the supposed lack of new evidence, including the phrase “no smoking gun,” but again, there’s no guarantee it’s the same juror who spoke with the Associated Press. If it is, he’s certainly enjoying the media attention. For now. When asked whether or not he appreciated the experience of serving on a jury for Bill Cosby, the juror only said, “I’m glad I did my civic duty.”
