Bill Cosby trial: What to know about the charges, the accuser
Bill Cosby will go on trial Monday in Pennsylvania on charges he drugged and sexually assaulted a woman 13 years ago in his Philadelphia home.
Cosby, 79, is accused of assaulting Andrea Constand, a Temple University basketball official, in January 2004. The trail comes a year-and-a-half after a Pennsylvania district attorney filed charges days before the statute of limitations was to expire in the case.
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Nearly 60 women have come forward in the past three years to accuse Cosby of drugging and assaulting them, behavior they say dates back to the mid-1960s.
Here are a few things to know about the trial:
- Constand, now 44, reported the molestation a year after it happened. The district attorney at the time declined to file charges.
- Constand filed a civil suit against Cosby after no criminal charges were brought. That suit was settled in 2006 for an undisclosed sum.
- Criminal charges were filed in December 2015, just before the statute of limitations on the sexual assault charge was set to expire.
>>5 things to know about Bill Cosby, his accuser and the charges
- Cosby has said he will not testify at the trial.
- The trial will not be televised, nor will it be livestreamed.
- The jury, predominantly white, is made up of seven men and five women.
- In the deposition for the civil suit, Cosby admitted he gave quaaludes to women he wanted to have sex with.
- Thirteen other accusers were set to testify that Cosby had also assaulted them, but the judge in the trial, Steven O'Neill, ruled only one of those 13 may testify.
- The aggravated indecent assault charge carries a possible 10-year prison term.
- Women began coming forward with accounts of being assaulted by Cosby after comedian Hannibal Buress called Cosby out as a rapist in 2014.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
