 |
| Photo Credit: AP. |
The Los Angeles county jury hearing the case of sexual assault allegations against Bill Cosby will have to start deliberations from scratch on Monday over issues with a departing juror. The jurors who spent two days deliberating on the sexual assault allegations reached verdicts on all of the questions put before them.
Last week
Friday, the jury came to agreement on whether Cosby had sexually assaulted
plaintiff Judy Huth at the Playboy Mansion when she was 16 in 1975, and whether
Huth deserved any damages, according to The Associated Press. They answered
eight of nine questions on their verdict form, all but one that asked whether
Cosby acted in a way that should require punitive damages, The Associated Press
reported.
According to
The Associated Press, Judge Craig Karlan had promised one juror when she agreed
to serve that she could leave after Friday for a prior commitment, decided over
the objections of Cosby’s attorneys to accept and read the verdict on the questions
the jury had answered. He would later change course when deputies at the Santa
Monica Courthouse appeared and required him to clear the courtroom.
Judge Karlan
refused to allow the departing juror to return on Monday which means that jurors
will have to begin again with a replacement in her stead.
The 84 year
old Cosby was freed from prison when his Pennsylvania criminal conviction was
thrown out nearly a year ago. Mr Cosby
who was absent at the case denied any sexual contact with Huth in a clip from a
2015 video deposition shown to jurors.