Accusers: We will ‘just’ wait
FOR BILL COSBY’S legion of accusers, his sexual abuse case mistrial is justice delayed — not denied.
Several of the women who charged the once-beloved comedian with drugging and sexually assaulting them predicted Saturday that Cosby’s retrial will end with a conviction.
“This isn’t over yet, Cosby,” said Beth Ferrier, 57, who alleged the comic drugged and assaulted her in the 1980s. “And rape is not a joke, and he’s going to be found guilty one way or another.”
Ferrier acknowledged to the Daily News that the jury deadlock was “like a slap in the face” — but said she was eager for the second criminal trial in a Norristown, Pa., courthouse.
Kristina Ruehli, who charged Cosby with drugging her in 1965 and trying to force her into oral sex, said the trial further exposed Cosby as more reprobate than role model.
She was also disturbed by wife Camille Cosby’s sharply worded attack on everyone involved in the trial — except husband Bill.
“She’s incredibly bitter,” said Ruehli, 74. “You can never get your reputation back. Money can’t buy it back. She’s got a lot bottled up, and guess what? He gets to live with that now.
“And he will have to go back and go through this all over again. It isn’t over.”
Ruehli was one of the 13 “Jane Doe” witnesses who agreed to testify for accuser Andrea Constand in her 2005 civil suit against Cosby.
Accuser Linda Kirkpatrick, who attended the trial, said the hung jury did not signal a Cosby victory or devalue the stories of sexual abuse told by the alleged victims.
“I’m not disheartened,” she told The News. “We are awake now. The country is awakened . . . I am confident that us, speaking out en masse, caused change.”
Dozens of accusers around the country followed the deliberations in Norristown, Pa., as the 79-year-old Cosby faced trial for his alleged 2004 drugging and sexual assault of Constand.
Among them was actress Tamara Green, 69, who claims Cosby assaulted her during the 1970s. Green said she believes a different jury might reach a different conclusion.
“It’s not an acquittal,” said the retired California lawyer. “I have faith in juries. The jury didn’t acquit him. The jury hung. I have deep faith in the jury system.”
Former Playboy bunny Victoria Valentino claimed that Cosby drugged and raped her in 1969. She was hopeful of a conviction, and the no-decision trial left her badly shaken.
“We are devastated,” she said after the deliberations became futile. “The jurors failed her, they failed us . . . But the fight goes on.”
Fellow former bunny P.J. Masten dismissed the claim by Cosby’s spokesman that the mistrial was some sort of vindication. “This is absolutely not a win for him,” the New Jersey woman told The News. “They only let one other survivor in (to testify). There are 58 of us.”
Masten, now 66, charged Cosby drugged and raped her in Chicago back in 1979.
“I will not degrade myself to even speak his name,” she said.
Former “Cosby Show” actress Lili Bernard, who accused him of raping her in the early 1990s, said she was so certain he would be convicted she typed out a Twitter post saying “guilty.”
“I’m disappointed in humanity,” she told The News.
Ferrier said she was already anxious for a Cosby retrial. “Let’s go round two,” said Ferrier. “Thank God we get to have round two.”