The judge in the sexual assault case of comedian Bill Cosby has declared a mistrial. After several days of deliberations, the jury could not come to a unanimous agreement on whether Cosby drugged and molested Andrea Constand, a former employee of Temple University, at his home near Philadelphia in 2004.
But this does not mean an end to the high-profile case: Prosecutors immediately said they will retry the case.
Cosby, 79, remains charged with three second-degree felony counts of aggravated indecent assault, and each count carries a minimum sentence of five years in prison. All told, if found guilty, Cosby could spend the rest of his life in prison.
"I remind everyone that this is not vindication or victory," Montgomery County Judge Steven T.O'Neill said Saturday. "A mistrial is merely the justice system at work."
Nevertheless, Cosby's legal and publicity team emerged onto the front steps of the courtroom triumphant.
"Justice is alive in Montgomery County," Cosby's attorney, Brian McMonagle, said with his client standing silently behind him. "We wanted an acquittal, but like the Rolling Stones song says, you can't always get what you want; sometimes you get what you need."
And in a scathing statement read aloud by a representative, Cosby's wife, Camille, called the the district attorney "heinously and exploitatively ambitious" and the judge "overtly and arrogantly collaborating" with him
