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Bill Cosby found guilty of sexual assault

Former TV star could spend his remaining years in prison
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Comedian and TV icon Bill Cosby was convicted on three counts of aggravated indecent assault and sexual assault on Thursday, after a half-dozen women testified that he drugged and assaulted them. (The World Affairs Council of Philadelphia/Flickr)

Comedian and TV icon Bill Cosby was convicted on three counts of aggravated indecent assault and sexual assault on Thursday, after a half-dozen women testified that he drugged and assaulted them.

Last June, a different jury was deadlocked on the question of whether Cosby had drugged and molested Andrea Constand at his home in 2004, forcing Judge Steven O'Neill to declare a mistrial.

During the retrial, a jury of seven men and five women voted unanimously that Cosby was guilty of three counts of aggravated indecent assault.

The verdict came after a two-week retrial in which prosecutors put five women on the stand who testified that Cosby, married for 54 years, drugged and violated them.

At 80 years of age, Cosby could get up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $25,000 for each count. He denied the charges, stating that his sexual encounter with Constand was consensual and that he only gave her an over-the-counter allergy medication. 

Andrea Constand, 45, a former Temple women's basketball administrator, told jurors that Cosby knocked her out with three blue pills he called "your friends" and then penetrated her with his fingers as she lay immobilized, unable to resist or say no.

It was the only criminal case to arise from a barrage of allegations from more than 60 women who said the former TV star drugged and molested them over a span of five decades.

— Sudbury.com