A third juror from the Bill Cosby sexual-assault trial has spoken out about the deliberations that led to a mistrial—and the comments speak volumes about why sexual assault is so difficult to prosecute, and why Cosby, even after a promised retrial, could still walk free.
Twenty-one-year-old Bobby Dugan spoke on Good Morning America on Monday, saying that the jury didn’t have enough “substantial evidence” to make a decision. Though Dugan said that he had some “regret” over the deadlock decision, he said that the jury thought it needed “more substantial evidence.” He continued: “And what it really comes down to is who are you gonna believe more. That’s all it was,” he said.
Andrea Constand, a former Temple University employee who alleges that Cosby assaulted her at his home in 2004, testified on the second day of the trial, telling a story remarkably similar to that of at least 60 other women who have also accused Cosby of assault. But sexual-assault cases often lack physical evidence at the time of trial, which is often years after the alleged crime. It often comes down to an encounter between two people, often behind closed doors. For decades, high-profile men from Clarence Thomas to Roger Ailes have withstood charges of sexual harassment, with one woman's word against theirs. Per the Rape, Abuse, and Incest and National Network, only two out of three sexual-assault cases get reported every year, likely in part because they so rarely lead to convictions.
The Cosby case, after the series of allegations against him and the resulting public backlash, seemed to be an exception. But Constand’s case shows that a conviction in court of law is far different from one in the court of public opinion.
During the Cosby deliberations, the jury repeatedly asked Judge Steven O’Neill questions about trial testimony. In the end, the jury remained hung, with 10 out of 12 believing Cosby was guilty on two of the three counts of aggravated indecent assault of Andrea Constand.
As he described the week of deliberations, Dugan, who said he believed Cosby was guilty, described an emotionally tense scene in the jury’s Allegheny County hotel.
“The most intense moment I think was when there was about four people crying in the room,” he said. “One was out in the hallway pacing, visibly upset.”
Though the jury members heard from Constand, who described at length how Cosby allegedly drugged and assaulted her, they also heard from Cosby’s team, who argued that Constand had changed her story. They often referred to the 53 phone calls that Constand reportedly made to Cosby following the night of her alleged assault. Even if the case is retried, Cosby’s team will likely continue the same strategy—putting the weight again entirely on Constand’s own words.
“We couldn’t really get anything down to like a solid thing, and that just frustrated people,” Dugan said.
