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Tag: Bill Cosby

  • Cosby lawyers urge court to void conviction, prison sentence

    Lawyers for Bill Cosby want a court to overturn the actor’s conviction and three- to 10-year sentence in his Pennsylvania sex assault case because of what they call a string of trial errors.

    The defense motion argues that trial Judge Steven O’Neill erred in declaring Cosby a sexually violent predator who should be imprisoned to protect the community.

    They called the sentence more punitive than necessary, given the standard two- to three-year guideline range and the fact Cosby is 81 and blind.

    They also say the trial evidence never proved the encounter took place in 2004, and not 2003, or that Cosby was arrested within the 12-year time limit.

    Cosby has been in a state prison near Philadelphia since the Sept. 25 sentencing on three felony sex assault counts.

    Montgomery County prosecutors say they will file a response.

  • Bill Cosby: From global icon to felon

    last Tuesday in a small court room in Norristown in Pennsylvania State of USA, a glittering reputation built for over 60 years came crashing down into infamy. On that day, Bill Cosby, the renowned American comedian and actor who is ‘technically blind’ was sentenced to 3-10 years in prison for sexual assault which he committed in 2004. He was also fined $25000 plus the cost of the prosecution. Immediately Judge Steven O’Neil pronounced the sentence, the 81-year old larger than life actor was handcuffed and led to prison. It was heart-breaking to see such a global icon descended into a felon.

    Before I discuss how this global icon and supposedly role model to many young people all over the world got himself into this sordid mess and quagmire, let me briefly trace how this unique man who started life from an humble beginning reached an enviable position in life with an unprecedented fame.

    Born on July 12, 1937 and named William Henry Cosby in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania USA, this fallen hero, could not be regarded as somebody born with proverbial silver spoon.  His mother was a maid while his father was a mess steward in US Navy. Despite this seemingly initial drawback, he pulled himself up the ladder of life to become an accomplished sportsman, a renowned global actor, a well-educated man, a global role model and a good supporter of education for young people. Bill Cosby joined the navy in 1956, after obtaining high school diploma which he got through correspondence courses. After leaving the navy, the young Bill Cosby was awarded a track and field scholarship in 1961 to attend Temple University where he proved himself as an accomplished sportsman. At Temple University, he studied Physical Education and got a bachelor’s degree in 1971. In 1973 he got a master’s degree from University of Massachusetts and he capped his academic endeavour with a doctoral degree in Education from the same University in 1976 at the age of 39 years.

    Bill Cosby started his career in show business immediately he left Temple University, and in and out of the universities he attended, he developed his talents for showmanship and for making people laugh. His global fame was through his numerous comedy albums, comedy shows, film appearances and television comedy series. He collaborated with leading African-American actors and actress like Lillian Randolph, Moms Mabley and Sammy Davis who he claimed was his best friend and the legendary Sidney Poitier. Bill Cosby was no doubt a very talented actor. He was awarded star on the Hollywood walk of fame in 1977 and got three consecutive Emmy awards for outstanding lead actor in drama series. However, of all his films and comedy series on the television, the one that established his global fame was ‘the Cosby Show ‘ which started in 1984 and ran till 1992. The show was an instant success. In the show which was shown all over the world, Bill Cosby played the role of Dr. Cliff Huxtable, an obstetrician. Together with his screen wife Clair Huxtable

    (Phylicia Rashad) and their screen children, the show portrayed a stable affluent African-American family life in USA which was a far cry from the usual chaotic African-American family life in USA. The show gave Bill Cosby the well-deserved nickname of ‘American dad’ respected throughout the length and breadth of America, a feat not usually accorded to any African-American.  In fact, many political commentators felt that the show went a long way to pave the way for Barack Obama to win the election to become the first African-American President of USA in 2008.

    Before his present travail, Bill Cosby was regarded to be an unimpeachable family man. He married his wife Camille Hank in 1964 and they had five children; the family lived an ideal life which what was replicated in Huxtable family in Bill Cosby show. Bill Cosby’s only son Ennis was murdered in 1977 while changing his car tyre on a Los Angeles road. The death was painful to Bill Cosby and many people in America and the rest of the world shared the pain with him because of the stoic way he reacted to the loss of his only son.

    Despite Bill Cosby’s prodigious fame and seemingly placid family life, his world started crashing down at the beginning of this decade as many women came forward to accuse the American icon of sexual assaults dating back to the sixties. By the last count, more than 60 women accused him of rape, drug facilitated sexual assault, sexual battery, child abuse and sexual misconduct. Many of the women who accused Bill Cosby regarded him as their mentor and role model.  Bill Cosby however routinely denied all the accusations. Some of the cases of sexual misconduct against Bill Cosby had passed the statute of limitation and the one that nailed him was the case brought by Ms. Andrea Constrand who was an administrator in Temple University which is the alma mater of Bill Cosby.  The incident between Bill Cosby and the lady who took him as a role model occurred in 2004. The lady alleged that Bill Cosby gave her pills which left her frozen in readiness for sexual assault by Bill Cosby. The first trial of the case in 2017 ended in mistrial but in a retrial by a jury, Bill Cosby was found guilty on April 26 on three count charge of aggravated sexual assault and on Tuesday , September 26, Bill Cosby at 81 years was sentenced to prison for 3-10 years . He will spend his jail term at state prison in Skippack Township in Pennsylvania, a state where he was regarded with extreme adoration before his travail. In sentencing him the judge described him as ‘sexual violent predator’, a description he would take to his grave.

    It was disheartening to watch on the television, Bill Cosby stripped of his jacket and being led to prison in a handcuff. Although his publicist described the trial as the ‘most racist and sexist’, not many people bought that sentiment even among African-Americans many of whom Bill Cosby at the height of his fame had offended by his caustic denunciation of their ways of life.  Many people also in USA could not sympathize with Bill Cosby in this his hour of travail, because of his refusal to show any iota of remorse for all his sexual predations of people who took him as a mentor and role model.

    Bill Cosby is the first celebrity to be disgraced and sentenced to prison after the fall and disgrace of the former legendary film producer, Harvey Weinstein. Like Bill Cosby, Weinstein was accused of serial sexual assaults. He specialized in sexually predating high profile actresses who he promised good roles in films. He was arrested in October 2017 and when the story of his sordid predations came out, he was dismissed from his film company that had produced many epic films and expelled from the prestigious Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Science. Since the fall of this powerful man, many women who had hitherto kept quiet about their trauma under this sexual predator and others are now speaking out through the #Me Too movement. The movement is against sexual harassment and sexual assault. About 80 women had accused Weinstein of sexual assault and soon he too, like Bill Cosby, would meet his nemesis in the court of law soon. Many big men in film, electronic and print media and those in corporate entities who have been accused of sexual assault on women have quietly resigned their posts in recent times. At present in the same spirit of #Me Too movement, three women have come out to accuse Judge Brett Kavanaugh, the Supreme Court nominee of President Donald Trump of gross sexual assaults some dating back to the time the judge was in the high school about 30 years ago. The three women, Professor Christine Blassey Ford, Deborah Ramirez and Ms Swetnick through their actions have put the confirmation of Judge Kavanaugh as a US Supreme court Judge in doubt.

    It is no doubt baffling to many people in Africa and elsewhere, to see  that this situation of  ‘kiss and tell’ in which sexual indiscretions committed decades ago can be highlighted to blight the career of high profile people. My take on this, is predicated on what is written in the Holy Writ which says in Exodus 32:34 that a sinner will not go unpunished no matter how long it takes. The wind of #Me Too movement is yet to blow across Africa especially Nigeria where many women young and old are unfortunately daily being subjected to physical, sexual and psychological abuses in our educational institutions, offices, churches, Nollywood and even at homes without any hope of redress.

     

    • Professor Lucas writes from Old  Bodija, Ibadan.

  • Bill Cosby to be sentenced for sexual assault

    Bill Cosby is due to be sentenced for his sexual assault conviction from earlier this year in a two-day proceeding starting on Monday.

    The 81-year-old star of The Cosby Show was found guilty in April of drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand in 2004.

    The court in Norristown, Pennsylvania, has scheduled two days for the sentencing, to give witnesses the opportunity to speak before the judge.

    Cosby, who has been under house arrest since his conviction, will also be offered the chance to make a statement before Judge Steven O’Neill hands him his sentence.

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    His lawyers have said he will appeal the conviction, which observers say could push the case up to Pennsylvania’s highest court and take several years.

    More than 50 women have come forward to publicly accuse Cosby of sexual assault spanning several decades.

    But Cosby’s conviction on three counts of aggravated indecent assault refers solely to accusations from Constand, a former employee at Temple University in Philadelphia, Cosby’s alma mater.

  • Imprisonment: Bill Cosby likens self to Mandela

    Having been found guilty of three felony counts of aggravated indecent assault, embattled American television star, Bill Cosby is said to have invoked the name of Nelson Mandela; liking his situation to that of the former South African president’s experience as a political prisoner. Cosby reportedly says he’s preparing himself mentally for incarceration stemming from his stunning conviction on charges of drugging and sexually assaulting a woman.

    “This is what they wanted,” the 80-year-old Cosby reportedly told the New York Post’s Page Six column in an interview following his conviction last week by a Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, jury.

    The column, published Saturday evening, says Cosby repeatedly spoke to Page Six over the past year with the agreement that nothing could be shared publicly during the legal proceeding.

    In an earlier interview, Cosby reportedly told Page Six that he has thought about what Mandela endured in prison to prepare himself for going to “that place,” meaning prison.

    “But, you know, I think back to the time when Camille and I went to visit Nelson Mandela in South Africa,” Cosby said, referring to his wife of 54 years, Camille Cosby. “He was a free man, but I remember when we met him at Robben Island where he had been in a prison for all of those years. I sat in that cell where he lived, and I saw how he lived . . . what he had to eat to live and what he went through.

    “So, if they send me to that place, then that’s what they will do, and I will have to go there.”

    But Andrew Wyatt, Cosby’s spokesman, denied the comedian gave an interview to Page Six.

    “He never did that,” Wyatt told ABC News on Sunday. “That’s totally false. He never gave Page Six an interview.”

    In a statement to ABC News, a spokesperson for the New York Post said, “The Post stands by its story.”

    On Thursday, the Montgomery County jury in Norristown found Cosby guilty of drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand – a former director of operations for the women’s basketball team at Temple University, where Cosby had been a trustee and major financial donor.

    Constand testified at both of Cosby’s trials that he gave her a powerful drug that rendered her dizzy, weak and unable to defend herself as he sexually assaulted her in 2004 at his home in the Philadelphia suburb of Elkins Park.

    Last week’s verdict came about 11 months after Cosby’s first trial ended in a mistrial when a jury could not reach a unanimous decision after deliberating six days.

    Unlike the first trial, prosecutors were allowed to call five other women to testify that Cosby assaulted them in the same manner.

    Under conditions of his release, Cosby was ordered to stay confined to his home except for appointments with his attorneys or doctors. He must also wear a GPS ankle bracelet so authorities can monitor his whereabouts.

    In an interview with ABC News’ “Good Morning America” on Friday, Cosby’s publicist, Ebonee Benson, compared the comedian’s conviction to the fate of Emmett Till, the 14-year old child brutalized and murdered in Mississippi in 1955 after being accused of whistling at a white woman.

    “This became a public lynching,” Wyatt told ABC News chief anchor George Stephanopoulos in the same interview. “The South came to the East.”

    Meanwhile, Montgomery County Assistant District Attorney Kristen Feden said the guilty verdict on three counts of aggravated indecent assault against the 80-year-old TV icon reflected the bravery of victim Andrea Constand, the other accusers who testified as “prior bad acts” witnesses and the jury in Pennsylvania.

    “When the verdict was read, I was just filled with awe and so excited and so happy,” Feden told CNN in a phone interview one day after Thursday’s conviction.

    “I was so happy for Andrea. I was so proud of her. And I was so happy for victims just everywhere. … It was a very awesome message to victims.”

    The jury agreed that Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted Constand at his home in a Philadelphia suburb in 2004. At the retrial, five other women testified that Cosby had also drugged and assaulted them decades ago.

    Cosby faces up to 10 years in prison on each count, but he is likely to serve them concurrently.

  • Bill Cosby sexual assault case ends in mistrial

    Bill Cosby sexual assault case ends in mistrial

    VETERAN American entertainer Bill Cosby walked home a freeman yesterday after a US judge declared a mistrial in his sex assault case.
    The jury had remained deadlocked for days with the seven men and five women unable to reach a unanimous decision after some 53 hours of deliberations in Norristown, Pennsylvania.
    Mr Cosby, 79, was tried for drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand in 2004. His lawyers had argued the sex was consensual.
    The US comedian could now face new proceedings.
    The prosecution said they were pursuing a fresh trial.
    Dozens of women accuse Cosby of assaulting them, but statutes of limitation rules mean he was allowed to be tried for Ms Constand’s allegation only.
    Had he been found guilty of three counts of aggravated indecent assault, which allegedly took place at his Philadelphia home 13 years ago, he could have faced up to a decade in prison.
    Announcing the decision, Pennsylvania judge Steven O’Neill reminded Mr Cosby that he remains charged and on bail, despite the mistrial.
    One of Mr Cosby’s lawyers, Brian McMonagle, applauded the decision.
    “The judge is right: justice is real,” the counsel said
    “We came here looking for an acquittal. But like that Rolling Stone song says ‘you don’t always get what you want’. Sometimes you get what you need.”
    But a lawyer representing many of his accusers, Gloria Allred, said she was hoping the prosecution would push for a retrial.
    “We can never underestimate the blinding power of celebrity but justice will come. I hope that the prosecution will try this case again.”
    The jury had been instructed by the judge to work into the weekend to reach a verdict, after they first revealed that they were deadlocked on the case on Thursday.
    But the panel returned yesterday to tell the judge they were still deadlocked on all three counts.
    The mistrial will be seen as a blow to the dozens of women who have accused Mr Cosby of sexual assault, a number of whom were present in court last week awaiting the verdict.
    The accuser, Constand Andrea, took the stand during the trial, telling the court the assault had left her feeling “humiliated” by someone she considered a friend and mentor.
    Cosby, who faces at least four separate civil lawsuits, refused to testify at the trial.

     

     

  • Prosecutors to call 13 witnesses for Cosby trial

    Prosecutors to call 13 witnesses for Cosby trial

    Bill Cosby,79 returned to a Pennsylvania courtroom on Tuesday, where his lawyers are expected to renew their battle with prosecutors over whether more than a dozen female accusers can testify at his criminal sexual trial in 2017.

    If prosecutors were successful, the entertainer would face a parade of witnesses portraying him as a serial predator, rather than a single woman testifying about a decade-old encounter fuelled by drugs and alcohol.Cosby’s reputation as a family-friendly comedian has been shredded by sexual assault accusations from around 50 women going back decades.

    Andrea Constand, a former basketball coach at Cosby’s alma mater Temple University, has accused him of drugging her with pills and wine in 2004 at his home before sexually assaulting her.Prosecutors have chosen 13 other women, whose accounts bear striking similarities to Constand’s story, describing Cosby’s efforts to establish a rapport first before using drugs to incapacitate them.

    Prosecutors have chosen 13 other women, whose accounts bear striking similarities to Constand’s story, describing Cosby’s efforts to establish a rapport first before using drugs to incapacitate them.

    Typically, prosecutors could not introduce evidence of unrelated “prior bad acts,” because it could prejudice jurors against a defendant.

    Cosby’s lawyers have argued that it is unfair to allow testimony about encounters that occurred years or decades ago and remain unproven.

    Cosby acknowledged giving women Quaaludes as a precursor to engaging in what he described as consensual sexual acts.

  • Bill Cosby: Email may derail case against entertainer

    Bill Cosby: Email may derail case against entertainer

    Former district attorney in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, claims he agreed more than a decade ago that his office wouldn’t use a civil deposition given by Bill Cosby in any criminal matters, an email obtained by CNN shows a revelation that could call into question the viability of the criminal case against the comedian.

    The 2015 email sent by former District Attorney Bruce Castor to successor Risa Vetri Ferman — details an apparent verbal agreement the prosecutor had a decade earlier with Cosby’s attorneys for Cosby to testify in a civil sexual assault case brought against him in 2005. In the email, Castor writes that his intent in making the deal was to create an atmosphere in which Cosby accuser Andrea Constand would have the best chance of prevailing in her civil suit against the 78-year-old comedian by removing the prospect of Cosby invoking his 5th Amendment right.

    CNN reports that the email was sent three months before criminal charges were filed against Cosby in Montgomery County in December, and could call into question the viability of the case, CNN has learned.

    In it, Castor writes to Ferman: “I can see no possibility that Cosby’s deposition could be used in a state criminal case, because I would have to testify as to what happened, and the deposition would be subject to suppression.

    “I cannot believe any state court judge would allow that deposition into evidence. …. Knowing this, unless you can make out a case without that deposition and without anything the deposition led you to, I think Cosby would have an action against the County and maybe even against you personally.”

    The deposition is a key piece of evidence, cited by prosecutors as the impetus for reopening the case.

    At the center of the case are allegations made by Constand, a former Temple University basketball employee, who says Cosby sexually assaulted her in his home in 2004.

    Dolores Troiani, an attorney for Constand in 2005, told CNN’s Jean Casarez on Friday that she never knew about any such agreement between Cosby’s attorneys and prosecutors.

    Castor, when asked by CNN about the email, declined to comment.

    The current district attorney, Kevin Steele, who was elected in November after serving as Ferman’s longtime top deputy, told CNN on Friday: “There is a specific legal method to grant immunity. That was not done in 2005.”

    Steele also noted that in Castor’s 2005 press release declaring there was insufficient evidence to prosecute Cosby that Castor himself said he would “reconsider this decision should the need arise.”

  • “I’m far from finished” Cosby breaks silence

    “I’m far from finished” Cosby breaks silence

    For the first time since the sexual assault allegations leveled against popular comedian Bill Cosby, he speaks out through a video message. 

    The Cosby Show star released a new video of him talking on the phone, assuring his fans that he’s still performing despite the recent scandal. However he did not mention the more than 20 women who claimed he sexually assaulted them.

    The video comes with a message from Cosby that reads “Dear fans, I hope you enjoy my wonderful video message that’s filled with laughter… Hey, hey, hey, I’m far from finished.”

    “You know I’ll be hilarious,” Cosby continues about his upcoming comedy shows.

    This is the first time the comedian who has still has not been charged will publicly address the allegations.

    *Video not available in Nigeria

  • Bill Cosby uses decoy to avoid media, hecklers

    THE tour situation for Bill Cosby continued to grow worse last week, with the controversy that the comedian used a decoy to avoid hecklers and reporters when leaving his Friday show in Sandusky, Ohio.

    In an exclusive video of the incident, which attempted to obtain comment from Cosby about the numerous sexual assault allegations facing him since   last year November, the entertainer who has issued denials through his representatives, appears to have had no interest in the discussion and subsequently “pulled an elaborate bait and switch” to avoid it.

    The amusing lengths security took to protect the star, shows how on edge he and his team are amid the allegations. At many of Cosby’s shows, protesters and group of media have greeted him.

    Interestingly, the Sandusky stop on Cosby’s tour went off with few problems, and just two protesters reportedly showed up. The Canadian stops from last month, meanwhile, were marred by protests consistently.

    Detroit’s 7 Action News team actually caught up with Cosby once before at his London, Ont. show in early January, where they were initially invited into the event to record his performance. However, at the last minute, Cosby’s team banned videotaping in the venue due to worries over protesters at that show. That particular incident also reportedly ended with Cosby fleeing the scene:

    Only Action News cameras captured his convoy avoiding the protesters and the media, rushing from the back of the arena moments after the show ended.

    His security team blocked vehicles, and running a red light through a snowy London, in an effort to get the star safely to his nearby hotel.

    Cosby, meanwhile, has never been charged with a crime in connection with the sexual assault allegations against him. His next live show is scheduled for February 8, at Boston’s Wilbur Theatre.

  • Bill Cosby accuser brings sex claims to LA police

    IN what could conceivably result in the first criminal case against the comedian, a woman accusing Bill Cosby of sexually abusing her in 2008 at the Playboy Mansion met with Los Angeles police for two hours on Wednesday, her attorney said.

    Chloe Goins’ allegation that Cosby drugged and assaulted her when she was 18 years old is one of more than a dozen similar allegations against the 77-year-old entertainer that have scuppered a would-be TV comeback and damaged his reputation.

    Attorney Spencer Kuvin, who is representing the 24-year-old Goins, said police told him they will investigate the allegations.

    “Ms. Goins and I are here for two reasons: for justice and accountability,” said Kuvin, adding that his client might be the first of Cosby’s accusers whose allegations meet California’s statute of limitations.

    Los Angeles Police Department spokeswoman, Rosario Herrera, said the department does not comment on sexual assault cases.

    Over the last three months, more than a dozen women have come forward alleging that Cosby had sexually abused them. Many of those allegations are decades old and fall outside the statute of limitations for criminal or civil cases.

    Cosby, best known for his “America’s Dad” persona Dr. Cliff Huxtable on the top-rated Cosby Show, has never been charged over any of the allegations. He settled a 2005 civil suit alleging sexual misconduct.

    Cosby’s attorney, Marty Singer, has dismissed the allegations as “discredited” and “defamatory.”