Prosecutors hope to show Cosby had a
pattern of sex abuse
They were models and aspiring actresses. One was a
flight attendant. Another was a masseuse.
Bill Cosby arrives for a pretrial hearing in his
sexual assault case at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pa.,
They were models and aspiring actresses. One was a flight attendant. Another was a masseuse.
Thirteen women who say Bill Cosby drugged and
sexually assaulted them over the years have agreed to testify against him in
the only criminal case stemming from the allegations.
Prosecutors say the women's experiences show that
Cosby is a serial offender and that the one case he's charged in — an alleged
assault at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004 — is part of a pattern of
abuse dating to the 1960s.
One starlet said she lost consciousness after Cosby
poured her a few glasses of Champagne and woke up naked and sore. Another said
she felt woozy and had blurred vision after he insisted she take a couple of
pills.
A judge hasn't said if he'll allow the women to
take the stand.
If he does, their testimony could widen the scope
of the 79-year-old Cosby's trial, slated for June, into a close examination of
his treatment of women over the last six decades — from his time as a fledgling
comedian to his worldwide fame as a TV sitcom star dubbed "America's
Dad."
Cosby's criminal case involves a single encounter
with former Temple University employee Andrea Constand, who told police he gave
her three unmarked pills and then molested her as she drifted in and out of
consciousness.
Prosecutors said they reviewed accusations made by
50 women and found 13 who said they were also drugged or intoxicated by Cosby
before he molested them. Many of those women came forward last year as
Pennsylvania authorities were deciding whether to reopen the Constand case.
One of the prospective witnesses, then an aspiring
actress, said Cosby assaulted her at a home near Reno, Nevada, in 1984 after
telling her agent and her parents that he wanted to mentor her.
The woman said Cosby told her he wanted to see her
act and handed her a script for an intoxicated character and an alcoholic
beverage he wanted her to "sip on." The woman says she soon lost
consciousness and awoke naked as Cosby forced his penis into her mouth.
Another woman said Cosby drugged and sexually
assaulted her in the late 1960s after befriending her and acting as a mentor to
her 9-year-old son. The woman, a restaurant worker in the San Francisco area,
said she lost consciousness after Cosby poured her a glass of wine and gave her
a headache pill. She said she woke up wearing only her underwear.
Cosby's lawyers say they'll oppose any testimony
from other accusers.
They suggest he's a wealthy target for the many
women he's met during decades as an A-list celebrity.
Defense lawyer Angela Agrusa told reporters Tuesday
that the accusers have been "paraded" before the media by lawyer
Gloria Allred and others without their accounts of abuse being investigated.
"We have seen a barrage of new accusers
claiming, 'Me, too,'" Agrusa said.
Cosby spokesman Andrew Wyatt brought race into the
equation, saying Allred and others have trampled on Cosby's civil rights.
Many of the accusers, including Constand, are
white.
Allred rejected Wyatt's accusations, saying that
Cosby is becoming desperate and that several accusers she represents are black
like he is.
Allred also represents Judy Huth, who filed a
lawsuit accusing Cosby of underage sexual abuse.
She said the case is not about racial bias but
rather about whether Cosby "has committed acts of gender sexual
violence."
It's unclear if any of Allred's clients are among
the 13 women prosecutors are seeking to call as witnesses against Cosby.
Also Tuesday, Cosby's lawyers asked a judge to
block prosecutors from using a 2005 telephone conversation at trial, saying
Constand's mother recorded it without his permission.
Cosby was in California when he called Constand's
mother at her Canadian home, but his lawyers argued Pennsylvania's two-party
consent law on recording — not a more lax Canadian law — should apply since
he's being prosecuted there.
In the conversation, Cosby described the sex act
with Constand as "digital penetration" but refused to say what pills
he had given her daughter. In his deposition, he later said he feared sounding
like "a dirty old man" on the call.
---
AP Entertainment Writer Anthony McCartney in Los
Angeles contributed to this report.
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