US comedian Bill Cosby ordered to stand trial for sexual assault

[webfact]

US comedian Bill Cosby ordered to stand trial for sexual assault



NORRISTOWN: -- Bill Cosby has been ordered by a US court to stand trial on sexual assault charges, over allegations that he drugged and molested a woman 12 years ago.

The 78-year-old American entertainer attended a preliminary hearing in Pennsylvania.

The case was reopened after more than 40 women came forward with similar accusations.

Andrea Constand who now lives in Canada and was not in court, complained to police in 2005 that Cosby assaulted her after giving her pills.

“The point of this is that it was intoxicating to her, and she was unable to consent. That’s the crime, that’s the charges that were bound over. And we look forward to handling this in court,” Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele told reporters outside the court.

In a statement read earlier in court, Cosby said the woman had never told him to stop during the encounter.

No date has been set for the trial.

In most other cases too much time has elapsed for charges to be pursued, but Cosby is facing civil lawsuits in some states.

Known to millions as “America’s Dad” over his role in the 1980s sitcom “The Cosby Show”, the comedian has denied assaulting anyone.

-- (c) Copyright Euronews 2016-05-25

[webfact]

Bill Cosby is ordered to stand trial in sex case
By MARYCLAIRE DALE and MICHAEL R. SISAK

NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) — She called him "Mr. Cosby" and considered him a trusted friend and mentor.

But 20 minutes after Bill Cosby offered her three blue pills and told her to take them with the wine he had set out, Andrea Constand's legs began to wobble "like jelly," her eyes went blurry and her head began to throb.

Cosby helped her to a couch in his living room, where she later realized he violated her as she lay helplessly in a stupor, she told police in 2005.

On Tuesday, a judge ordered the 78-year-old Cosby to stand trial on sexual assault charges on the strength of Constand's decade-old police statement, sparing the former Temple University employee the need to testify at the preliminary hearing.


Cosby could get 10 years in prison if convicted in the case, the only criminal charges brought against the comedian out of the barrage of allegations that he drugged and molested dozens of women over five decades. He is free on $1 million bail.

A trial date was not immediately set.

Cosby, looking less frail than he did when he was arrested five months ago, seemed unfazed by District Judge Elizabeth McHugh's decision.

"Mr. Cosby is not guilty of any crime, and not one single fact presented by the commonwealth rebuts this truth," his lawyers said in a statement afterward.

The hearing was not the face-to-face confrontation between accuser and accused that some had anticipated: Constand, who is now a massage therapist in Toronto, was not in the courtroom, and the judge ruled that she did not have to testify at this stage. Instead, prosecutors had portions of her 2005 police statement read into the record.

While authorities in recent months have paraphrased her account and quoted fragments, this was apparently the first time that large sections of her statement — or Cosby's, for that matter — were made public.

Constand told police that the comedian penetrated her with his fingers and fondled her at his suburban Philadelphia mansion in 2004 after giving her what he said was herbal medication. After taking the pills, she said, "everything was blurry and dizzy."

"I told him, 'I can't even talk, Mr. Cosby.' I started to panic," she told police.

She said she awoke with her bra askew and did not remember undoing it.

Cosby's lawyers argued unsuccessfully that having a police officer read Constand's statement instead of putting her on the stand would be third-hand testimony and would deprive him of his right to confront his accuser. But reading a police statement into the record is common practice at preliminary hearings in Pennsylvania.

The defense also argued that Constand was having a relationship with a married man and that they had engaged in "petting" during her two or three earlier visits to his home.

In his own 2005 statement to police, excerpts of which were also read in court, Cosby said Constand never said "no" as he put his hand down her pants. He told police the pills were over-the-counter Benadryl that he takes to help him sleep.

Cosby attorney Brian McMonagle also questioned why Constand continued to see the comedian and even returned to the house to meet with him after the alleged assault.

In addition, the defense seized on discrepancies in the three police statements Constand gave, including her shifting memory of precisely when the encounter occurred.

Cosby settled with Constand for an undisclosed sum in 2006 after testifying behind closed doors about his extramarital affairs, his use of quaaludes to seduce women and his efforts to hide payments to former lovers from his wife.

But prosecutors reopened the criminal case last year after dozens of women leveled similar allegations and after Cosby's sealed testimony in Constand's lawsuit was made public.

Cosby's lawyers are trying to get the case thrown out, arguing that a previous prosecutor made a binding promise a decade ago that the comic would never be charged.

He is also fighting defamation lawsuits across the country for allegedly branding his accusers liars and is trying to get his homeowner insurance to pay his legal bills.

The Associated Press does not normally identify people who say they were victims of sex crimes unless they agree to be named publicly, which Constand has done.


-- (c) Associated Press 2016-05-25

[ggt]

How in the hell can a serial rapist get away with his crimes against women for so long?

40 brave victim want justice...how many more are too embarrassed to come forward...

I hope if Bill is found guilty...that he gets raped by a big bruiser in lockup every night...serve that piece of dung right for his stupidity...

[user82374298374]

This whole thing is an evidence-free frame-up, with the goal to provide grist for lawsuits - nothing more.

[SOTIRIOS]

...as disgusting as his face...

[sanukjim]

By By Bill. Hope that you are working on some of your comic material for use in the jail.

[neverdie]

By By Bill. Hope that you are working on some of your comic material for use in the jail.

They'll call him 'Bend over Bill" or Backdoor Billy!

Crims just love rock spiders

Edited May 25, 2016 by neverdie

[Nasrullah]

By By Bill. Hope that you are working on some of your comic material for use in the jail.

They'll call him 'Bend over Bill" or Backdoor Billy!

Crims just love rock spiders

A rock spider is a paedophile........he is not accused of anything like that!.......BTW it's quite compelling 40 or so women have come forward...

But......this is no slam -dunk for the prosecution by any means........it started being consensual and got blurry from then on.....

He said/she said .....

[Scotwight]

By By Bill. Hope that you are working on some of your comic material for use in the jail.

They'll call him 'Bend over Bill" or Backdoor Billy!

Crims just love rock spiders

A rock spider is a paedophile........he is not accused of anything like that!.......BTW it's quite compelling 40 or so women have come forward...

But......this is no slam -dunk for the prosecution by any means........it started being consensual and got blurry from then on.....

He said/she said .....

Disgraced comic Bill Cosby is facing new outrage as court documents uncovered by The National ENQUIRER reveal that the perverted funnyman lured underage girls to the set of "The Cosby Show" for sexual favors! Knowing who his friends are I would not count on him spending any time in jail.

http://www.nationalenquirer.com/photos/bill-cosby-rape-assault-charges-trial-teen-prostitutes/photo/158921/

Edited May 25, 2016 by Scotwight

[Nasrullah]

yeah ok.....let's prove the adult allegations first.........sometimes rumor spreads from truth and vice-versa

[Nasrullah]

National Enquirer | Hottest Celebrity Gossip & Entertainment News...

[neverdie]

yeah ok.....let's prove the adult allegations first.........sometimes rumor spreads from truth and vice-versa

Old bill might have been operating on the principle of 'old enuf to grow grass in the wicket, old enough to play cricket'

[Nasrullah]

i'm sure there's a few 'visitors' to thailand who share this view......

[elgordo38]

How in the hell can a serial rapist get away with his crimes against women for so long?

40 brave victim want justice...how many more are too embarrassed to come forward...

I hope if Bill is found guilty...that he gets raped by a big bruiser in lockup every night...serve that piece of dung right for his stupidity...

Starting to look a little like the Hi-So Elite justice system here.

[ballpoint]

By By Bill. Hope that you are working on some of your comic material for use in the jail.

They'll call him 'Bend over Bill" or Backdoor Billy!

Crims just love rock spiders

A rock spider is a paedophile........he is not accused of anything like that!.......BTW it's quite compelling 40 or so women have come forward...

But......this is no slam -dunk for the prosecution by any means........it started being consensual and got blurry from then on.....

He said/she said .....

Disgraced comic Bill Cosby is facing new outrage as court documents uncovered by The National ENQUIRER reveal that the perverted funnyman lured underage girls to the set of "The Cosby Show" for sexual favors! Knowing who his friends are I would not count on him spending any time in jail.

Yep

[neverdie]

^ mass murderers and rapists......peas in a pod.

[smotherb]

How in the hell can a serial rapist get away with his crimes against women for so long?

40 brave victim want justice...how many more are too embarrassed to come forward...

I hope if Bill is found guilty...that he gets raped by a big bruiser in lockup every night...serve that piece of dung right for his stupidity...

"How in the hell can a serial rapist get away with his crimes against women for so long?"

Sounds like you have already convicted him.

[Scott]

Off-topic posts removed.

[kiniyow]

I think much of this is about Money and Just how much I can get?

[anotheruser]

Conclusive proof, what more do you need?

[Nasrullah]

His co-star (whatever her name is in video above)is sticking by him.........just sayin