The judge in Bill Cosby's sexual assault trial has ordered the jury to continue deliberations after reaching deadlock. Judge Steven O'Neill was informed of the deadlock on all three aggravated indecent assault charges Thursday morning, Varietyreported.
"We cannot come to a unanimous consensus on any of the charges," the jury told O'Neill in a written statement Thursday. The jury is currently in its fourth day of deliberations. As for the possibility of a mistrial, O'Neill pushed back on that option in response to a defense request, calling it "simply inappropriate" as of now. Each charge carries a potential sentence of up to 10 years.
Earlier this week, the jury inquired about the language of the charges, specifically the use of the phrase "without her knowledge" in one count. "I think that the intent really is about the intent of the person providing it, and was it with an intent to overcome her resistance for sexual purposes," Gloria Allred, who represents multiple alleged Cosby victims, told reporters Tuesday. "We'll see how the jury reads it. They now have no direction or instruction from the court about how to interpret it. That happens sometimes. They're going to just have to debate that among themselves, what that means."
In her June 6 testimony, Andrea Constand spoke publicly about Cosby's actions for the first time. "In my head, I was trying to get my hands to move or my legs to move, but I was frozen," Constand said. "I wasn't able to fight in any way." Cosby is accused of drugging and sexually assaulting Constand at his Philadelphia-area home in 2004. Constand was joined by her mother in court for Thursday's announcement of a deadlock, BBC Newsreported.
As of May of this year, the Washington Postnotes, Cosby has been accused of "sexual misdeeds" by at least 60 different women.
