A Bill Cosby Juror Claims The Mistrial Happened Because Prosecutors Lacked ‘Substantial Evidence’

juin 26, 2017

Following a short-lived defense and 52 hours of deliberation, the Pennsylvania-based rape trial of Bill Cosby ended in a mistrial. Previously, little was known about what went on during the hung jury’s nearly two and a half days’ worth of discussions, but that all changed Monday morning when ABC News aired an exclusive interview with Bobby Dugan, a 21-year-old juror who described a rather “intense” behind-closed-doors scene. What’s more, the young juror also laid the blame for the trial’s indecision on the prosecutors’ inability to produce “substantial evidence” for their case against Cosby.

“We couldn’t really get anything down to like a solid thing and that just frustrated people,” Dugan recalled. “I have had, like, regret I guess, when we came to the final deadlock decision, and it has kind of been eating at my mind, like, this could have all been done with.” When asked what could have been done differently to avoid these frustrations and the resulting mistrial, the young juror immediately suggested more evidence. “Evidence. We all said it a million times in the room. If there was other evidence, more substantial evidence, we would have had a better verdict than deadlock.”

“It was all ‘he said, she said,’ and what it really comes down to is who are you going to believe more and that was all it was,” said Dugan, who remembered an “intense moment” when “there was about four people crying in the room.” Another, he added, “was out in the hallway pacing, visibly upset.” Why? Because of the lack of evidence, and the jury’s subsequent exasperation at having to determine uniformly whether or not Cosby was guilty. As for whether or not he thinks the comedian is guilty, Dugan said he does — especially after hearing snippets from the deposition regarding Cosby’s alleged sexual assault of Andrea Constand.

(Via ABC News)