‘Cosby’ actress protests against Cosby
A topless protester leaped over a barricade and ran toward Bill Cosby at the start of his sexual assault retrial on Monday. She was identified as an actress who appeared on the comedian’s family sitcom “The Cosby Show” as a child.
Nicolle Rochelle, a member of the European feminist group Femen, which is known for staging topless protests, said she wanted to send a message to the 80-year-old comedian.
“The main goal was to make Cosby uncomfortable because that is exactly what he has been doing for decades to women,” she told reporters after her release from custody.
Rochelle, of Little Falls, New Jersey, had the names of more than 50 of Cosby’s accusers scrawled on her body, along with the words “Women’s Lives Matter,” when she ran in front of Cosby toward a bank of TV cameras outside the suburban Philadelphia courthouse. She was taken down by sheriff’s deputies and charged with disorderly conduct.
Her protest came ahead of opening statements in a case that pits Cosby against a former Temple University women’s basketball official who said the comedian drugged and molested her in 2004. He said the encounter was consensual.
Rochelle, who gueststarred on several episodes of “The Cosby Show” more than 25 years ago, said she didn’t have any bad experiences with Cosby when she was on the show, nor did she intend to physically hurt him on Monday.
“I wanted him to feel something. I wanted him to feel what he did and have it be in his face,” said Rochelle, who has been living in Paris. “I wanted to approach him, but I didn’t want to touch him at all.”