The legal team for Bill Cosby made their fifth motion for a mistrial Thursday morning, saying that the prosecution’s cross-examination of their witness, Marguerite Jackson, “tainted” the jury by implying that the comedian’s lawyers had “created” her statement.
Judge Steven T. O’Neill struck down the motion as having “simply no grounds for a mistrial” and being raised too late. He also scolded the defense on only having one witness ready for the day, which will feature the testimony of the prosecution’s final witness as well. Both will be called to testify as expert witnesses.
On Wednesday, Jackson, a former fellow employee of Temple University alongside Cosby accuser Andrea Constand, told the court that she once shared a hotel room with Constand during one of the women’s basketball team’s away game nights in Rhode Island, where a news report on a celebrity accused of assault prompted Constand to tell Jackson that a “high-profile person” once assaulted her.
Jackson continued, “I said, ‘Did this really happen to you?’ and [Constand] said ‘no, no it didn’t. But I could say it happened, get that money. I could quit my job, go back to school.’”
The cross-examination from prosecutor Stewart Ryan hinged largely on the amendments between Jackson’s initial statement and her second one, which was revised with Cosby’s legal team.
Constand herself had testified in the past week that she did not remember a Marguerite Jackson but that the name “Margo” rang a bell.
Cosby is being re-tried on three counts of aggravated indecent assault, stemming from Constand’s accusation that the comedian molested her in 2004 at his home outside of Philadelphia.
Cosby’s initial trial in the matter ended in a mistrial in July 2017 after the jury was unable to reach a verdict following five days of deliberations.