Topless Bill Cosby protester nabbed
Claims goal was discomfort
NORRISTOWN, Pa. — A topless woman with the names of Bill Cosby’s accusers scrawled on her body jumped a barricade outside the courthouse yesterday and got within a few feet of the comedian — who she worked with as a child actress on “The Cosby Show.”
Nicolle Rochelle, 39, of Little Falls, N.J., had the names of more than 50 Cosby accusers as well as the words “Women’s Lives Matter” written on her body. She ran in front of Cosby toward a bank of TV cameras but was intercepted by sheriff’s deputies and led away in handcuffs.
Cosby seemed startled by the commotion as a halfdozen protesters chanted at him.
“The main goal was to make Cosby uncomfortable because that is exactly what he has been doing for decades to women,” Rochelle said after she was charged with disorderly conduct and released.
Rochelle said she didn’t have any bad experiences with Cosby when she was on the show, nor did she intend to physically hurt him. She is a member of the European feminist group Femen, which is known for staging topless protests around the world.
In Cosby’s ongoing trial, the prosecutor revealed yesterday that the comedian paid nearly $3.4 million more than a decade ago in a settlement with the woman he is now charged with sexually assaulting.
District Attorney Kevin Steele highlighted the 2006 civil settlement during his opening statement, suggesting that Cosby wouldn’t have paid out so much money if the accusations against him were false.
The amount Cosby paid to accuser Andrea Constand had been confidential, but a judge ruled that both sides could discuss it at the trial.
Cosby, 80, is charged with drugging and molesting Constand, a former employee of Temple University’s basketball program, at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004. Constand says he gave her pills that made her woozy, then penetrated her with his fingers as she lay incapacitated, unable to tell him to stop.
Cosby says the encounter was consensual, and his lawyers have signaled they intend to attack Constand as a liar who set up Cosby in hope of landing a big payday from the former TV star.
Cosby’s first trial last spring ended with the jury hopelessly deadlocked. The comedian faces three counts of aggravated indecent assault, each punishable by up to 10 years in prison.