Bill Cosby defense rests without comedian's testimony
NORRISTOWN, Pa. -- Bill Cosby said that he will not testify in his own defense at his sexual assault trial. The 79-year-old comedian told a judge Monday that he made the decision after talking it over with his lawyers.
Cosby's legal team put on a case consisting of just one witness and six minutes of testimony Monday, wrapping up the defense side in the sexual assault trial without the comedian himself taking the stand. The jury was expected to hear closing arguments next and could get the case in the afternoon.
The question going into Monday's proceedings was whether Cosby hismelf would testify -- a high-stakes gamble that could have allowed him to work his charm on the jury but could have also exposed him to blistering cross-examination.
With Cosby's wife of 53 years, Camille, looking on from the gallery for the first time in the six-day-old trial, Judge Steven O'Neill asked Cosby a series of questions designed to make sure he was aware of his right to testify and wasn't pressured into deciding against it. Cosby spoke loudly as he answered, responding "Yes!" or "No!"
The defense called just one witness: the detective who led the 2005 investigation into allegations that Cosby drugged and violated Andrea Constand at his suburban Philadelphia home.
Detective Richard Schaffer was one of 12 witnesses who testified during the five-day prosecution case. In a six-minute appearance Monday, Shaffer told jurors under defense questioning that Constand had visited with Cosby at an out-of-state casino and that police knew he had vision problems more than a decade ago.
The judge shot down a defense request to call a second witness -- a woman who worked with Constand at Cosby's alma mater, Temple University.
Cosby could spend the rest of his life in prison if convicted of molesting Constand in 2004. He has said the encounter was consensual. Constand, 44, told her side of the story over some seven hours on the witness stand.
Prosecutors wanted 13 other accusers to testify at the trial, but the judge allowed just one, an assistant to Cosby's agent at the William Morris Agency.
The defense's main goal in the prosecution phase of the case was to attack the credibility of Constand and the other accuser, Kelly Johnson.
The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they grant permission, which Constand and Johnson have done.
