Well, would you look at this: Less than a week since embattled comedian Bill Cosby’s walked out of the court room a free man because of a mistrial, the 79-year-old now wants to “get back to work”—teaching young people about the threat of being accused of sexual violence, Cosby representatives said on Wednesday.
Andrew Wyatt, Cosby’s publicist, and Ebonee Benson, a spokeswoman for Camille Cosby, told Good Day Alabama host Janice Rogers that Cosby was planning town halls for youth starting this summer. “This issue,” Wyatt said, “can affect any young person, especially young athletes of today. And they need to know what they’re facing when they’re hanging out and partying.”
It’s clear that the issue in question isn’t sexual assault itself, which studies have shown to affect as many as 1 in 5 college women, but rather the danger that young men (and even “married men,” Wyatt laughed) could be falsely accused. “People need to be educated on a brush against a shoulder—anything at this point can be considered sexual assault,” Benson chimed in.
According to the United States Department of Justice, sexual assault is “any type of sexual contact or behavior that occurs without the explicit consent of the recipient.” Sexual assault is basically an umbrella term that includes sexual activities such as rape, fondling, and attempted rape.
However, the legal definition varies depending on which state you’re in, and can even be different depending on where you were when the assault happened, Emily Austin, director of advocacy services for California Coalition Against Sexual Assault, tells SELF. For example, she says, sexual assault on college campuses in California means a sex act that occurred without affirmative consent (which is described as active, voluntary participation), while California criminal law defines rape as nonconsensual sexual intercourse, and other laws govern different forms of sexual assault beyond intercourse.
Generally, sexual assault falls into one of three categories.
1. Penetration crimes
– Of a body part by another body part (i.e., penal penetration of mouth, anus, vagina)
– Of a body part by an object
2. Contact with genitalia, breast, buttocks, or other intimate body parts
3. Exposure of genitalia, breast, buttocks or other intimate body parts
A juror in Bill Cosby’s sexual assault trial says that 10 of the 12 jurors voted to convict the comedian, while the two holdouts felt he was innocent and refused to budge throughout the deliberations, according to ABC News. The case…
… ended in a mistrial when the jury was unable to come to a unanimous decision.
Of the three counts against Cosby, the jury was 10 to 2 that Cosby was guilty on both digitally penetrating accuser Andrea Constand and that the assault occurred after he drugged Constand without her knowledge, and 10 to 2 to acquit that she was unconscious or unaware during the incident, according to the juror.
The juror said the two holdouts against finding Cosby guilty were “not moving, no matter what.”
The juror went on to say that the number of other women accusing Cosby did not factor into the deliberations of this case. “We never brought anything outside in,” the juror said. “Never. Not once. If somebody would mention something, we would cut them off.”
In the jury’s first, non-binding poll, the vote was unanimous for not guilty on all three counts against Cosby, the juror revealed. However, after over 50 hours of deliberations, a unanimous decision could not be reached on any of the three counts.
By subscribing, you consent to receive emails from BlackDoctor.com. You may unsubscribe at any time. Privacy Policy & Terms of Service.
