Cosby plans sex assault talks, accusers' lawyer cries foul

By Scott Malone

 

FILE PHOTO - Actor and comedian Bill Cosby (C) waves as he departs after a judge declared a mistrial in his sexual assault trial at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pennsylvania, U.S., June 17, 2017. REUTERS/Charles Mostoller

 

(Reuters) - Bill Cosby plans to conduct a series of free public seminars about sexual assault this summer, his spokesman said days after a Pennsylvania judge declared a mistrial in the entertainer's sexual assault trial.

 

A lawyer for 33 women who have accused former star of the 1980s TV hit "The Cosby Show" of sexual assault criticized the move as an apparent attempt to interfere with his expected retrial on charges of sexually assaulting Andrea Constand at his home in the Philadelphia in 2004.

 

"I received hundreds of calls from civic organizations and churches requesting for Mr. Cosby to speak to young men and women about the judicial system," Andrew Wyatt, Cosby's spokesman, said in an email Thursday.

 

Pennsylvania prosecutors plan to re-try the 79-year-old Cosby on charges of drugging and sexually assaulting Constand, after the jury in the first trial failed to reach a verdict.

 

The case is the only criminal prosecution to emerge from dozens of similar allegations against Cosby, dating as far back as the 1960s, with the other cases too old to prosecute.

 

The talks could make it harder to pick an unbiased jury for his retrial, said attorney Gloria Allred, who represents the 33 women.

 

"Mr. Cosby's so-called workshops appear to be a transparent and slick effort to attempt to influence the jury pool from which jurors will be selected for his second criminal trial," Allred said in an email. "Mr. Cosby should understand, however, that this is not about optics. It is about evidence."

 

In a Wednesday interview on Birmingham, Alabama's WBRC-TV news, Wyatt offered more detail about the seminars.

 

"This issue can affect any young person, especially young athletes of today," Wyatt said. "They need to know what they are facing when they are hanging out and partying when they are doing things they shouldn't be doing. And it also affects married men."

 

Cosby has long denied sexually assaulting anyone, saying that any sexual contact he had with Constand or anyone else was consensual.

 

Since the judge in the case on Wednesday unsealed the names of the jurors, two have given anonymous interviews to U.S. media outlets, providing conflicting accounts of the deliberations. One told ABC News that two holdouts prevented a conviction, while another told Pittsburgh's WPXI-TV that the 12-member panel was divided by five to seven.

 

(Reporting by Scott Malone in Boston; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Steve Orlofsky)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-06-23

Certain select attendees will be invited to his hotel room for further discussions.

There was a time, not so long ago, when Bill Cosby had the highest "Q" rating of any celebrity.

"The Q Score (more popularly known as Q-Rating) is a measurement of the familiarity and appeal of a brand, celebrity, company, or entertainment product (e.g., television show) used in the United States. The higher the Q Score, the more highly regarded the item or person is among the group familiar with them"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q_Score

This was during the period now known to historians as "The Pudding Pop Era".

58 minutes ago, ilostmypassword said:

There was a time, not so long ago, when Bill Cosby had the highest "Q" rating of any celebrity.

"The Q Score (more popularly known as Q-Rating) is a measurement of the familiarity and appeal of a brand, celebrity, company, or entertainment product (e.g., television show) used in the United States. The higher the Q Score, the more highly regarded the item or person is among the group familiar with them"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q_Score

This was during the period now known to historians as "The Pudding Pop Era".

think bill was pudding his (deleted) where he should not have  been.

7 hours ago, webfact said:

this is not about optics. It is about evidence."

Well, it might behove you to ensure it is solid, then, Ms. Allred.

 

And to name the accused in just about every sexual assault case, before any trial has taken place, is bias at its most blatant.

5 minutes ago, Jonmarleesco said:

Well, it might behove you to ensure it is solid, then, Ms. Allred.

 

And to name the accused in just about every sexual assault case, before any trial has taken place, is bias at its most blatant.

I don't understand. Do you mean that the prosecution should not publicly reveal who they are prosecuting? Are you advocating for secret trials?

 

 

I am sorry, I realise I will be castigated for what I am about to state, but hey here goes. Why, simple question, did it take in some instances, some 30-40 years before people realised that a certain person(s) had inappropriately had some form of sexual/physical relations with them.

 

Now I am not suggesting they are fabricating stories, but please do not give me the peer pressure crap…someone does something you do not like you act/react…at the time, loudly.  I am sorry, but if it took you 30-40 years (or the thought of lots of money) to decide that what happened was not what you desired…too late.

 

Do you have photographs, original/contemporaneous diary entrees, and recorded discussions with any one (at the time) about the 'alleged' incidents…No! Then all you have is unsubstantiated, factually unprovable and legally contestable ‘nothing’.

 

Sorry…you have had many, many opportunities to act…too late now! I think it is even worse when the ‘affected’ wait, until the ‘alleged’ offender is deceased and has no ‘right of reply’, before coming out of their closet.

Well, at least he is still a comedian.   

He's definitely got really good lawyers. 

On 6/23/2017 at 5:22 PM, Juan B Tong said:

Certain select attendees will be invited to his hotel room for further discussions.

I still find it difficult to believe someone in his position has trouble finding willing sex partners and had to resort to drugging and rape--remember, he could offer so many groupie-women chances to be an entertainment contender; auditions, bit parts, to be part of an entourage, or just rubbing elbows with the big time and living large.  So, unless he just had to have those particular women--something I find even harder to believe from their pictures--he should have had many eager applicants.

On 6/24/2017 at 10:20 PM, Queenslander said:

 

 

 

I am sorry, I realise I will be castigated for what I am about to state, but hey here goes. Why, simple question, did it take in some instances, some 30-40 years before people realised that a certain person(s) had inappropriately had some form of sexual/physical relations with them.

 

Now I am not suggesting they are fabricating stories, but please do not give me the peer pressure crap…someone does something you do not like you act/react…at the time, loudly.  I am sorry, but if it took you 30-40 years (or the thought of lots of money) to decide that what happened was not what you desired…too late.

 

Do you have photographs, original/contemporaneous diary entrees, and recorded discussions with any one (at the time) about the 'alleged' incidents…No! Then all you have is unsubstantiated, factually unprovable and legally contestable ‘nothing’.

 

Sorry…you have had many, many opportunities to act…too late now! I think it is even worse when the ‘affected’ wait, until the ‘alleged’ offender is deceased and has no ‘right of reply’, before coming out of their closet.

 

Some of the accusers have admitted to lying and some have changed their stories multiple times (ie they're lying).   What's happened to Bill is a travesty of justice.