Jurors in the criminal retrial of Bill Cosby have a lot to consider as they sift through evidence presented during the two-week case, including testimony from a Federal Aviation Administration expert, who verified records presented by the defense that showed the comedian could not have been in Pennsylvania when prosecutors said he assaulted former Temple University employee Andrea Constand.
Flight records and Cosby’s tour schedule revealed the comic to be in various places including Wyoming, Florida, Arizona and ironically, Constand’s hometown of Toronto, Canada, when she claimed he drugged and assaulted her at his Elkins Park, Pa., home in January 2004.
The closest Cosby got to his Montgomery County home was 103 miles away at the Teterboro, N.J. airport where his private plane jetted him around the country during his tour.
Prosecutors had no concrete rebuttal to the records only suggesting that Cosby, who has been legally blind since early 2003, could have driven himself or taking a train to Pennsylvania.
“We knew everything that he was doing, and we were aware of all of his movement,” Kim Harjo, a former assistant to Cosby’s agent David Brokaw, testified during the trial.
A key element of the case has been whether Pennsylvania’s 12-year statute of limitations had expired before prosecutors brought charges against Cosby on December 30, 2015. If the incident occurred prior to January 2004, jurors must find Cosby not guilty, based on the statute of limitations law.
Unwittingly, prosecutors may have helped Cosby’s cause.
During the cross examination of defense witness Marguerite Jackson who said she shared a room with Constand on February 1, 2004, Assistant District Attorney Stuart Ryan introduced expense reports that indicated that the two must have shared a room one year earlier, on February 1, 2003.
Jackson testified that Constand had told her she could make up claims that a high-profile person drugged and sexually assaulted her and, because of the allegation, Constand would be able to get money, move back to Canada, go to school and open a massage therapy business.
Constand did settle a lawsuit with Cosby for more than $3 million and she did move back to Canada and opened a message therapy business.
Cosby, 80, faces three counts of aggravated indecent assault. Each count carries a possible 10-year prison sentence. He’s maintained his innocence, even turning down a no-jail plea bargain offer prosecutors previously made.
