Bill Cosby is staying hopeful while awaiting the verdict on his highly-publicized sexual assault trial.
“Mr. Cosby is in good spirits and feels that these jurors are highly intelligent and [he’s] hopeful they will make the right decision,” the actor’s spokesperson Andrew Wyatt told Us Weekly in a statement on Tuesday, June 13.
The 79-year-old is facing three counts of felony aggravated indecent assault of former Temple University basketball coach Andrea Constand. In her testimony this week, Constand claimed The Cosby Show actor drugged and sexually assaulted her at his Philadelphia-area home in 2004. Cosby who pleaded not guilty, has denied the accusations and claimed the sexual encounter was consensual, but he did not take the stand to defend himself.
After the trial concluded on Monday, June 12, the jury of seven men and five women spent four hours deliberating on the case. They returned on Tuesday and asked Judge Steven O’Neill to read more excerpts from Cosby’s 2005 deposition about his relationship with Constand.
Cosby could face up to 10 years in prison for each charge, but the sentences are usually allowed to be served simultaneously, the Associated Press reports. If found guilty, he will have to register as a sex offender.
Although more than 50 women have made similar accusations against the Uptown Saturday Night actor, Constand is the only one to have brought forward criminal charges. However, another accuser, Kelly Johnson, testified for the prosecution in the trial and claimed she was also drugged and sexually assaulted by the actor in 1996.
