50 women may testify over Cosby ‘sex attacks’
BILL Cosby could face dozens of women giving evidence against him during his trial for indecent assault. More than 50 women who have accused him of raping or assaulting them could be called to testify, victims’ lawyers said.
They could tell a jury what happened to them to make the woman accusing Cosby appear more credible, and to establish a pattern of behaviour.
Last night the comedian’s lawyer Monique Pressley said he would not accept a plea deal, meaning the case is all but certain to go to trial.
Cosby was charged on Wednesday with aggravated indecent assault in the first degree for allegedly drugging and having sex with Andrea Constand in 2004 against her will. If convicted,
‘Demonstrate that kind of courage’
Cosby, 78, who has been married since 1964, faces up to ten years in jail. Dozens of the allegations against the former star of The Cosby Show date back to the 1970s and are beyond the statute of limitations – ruling out legal proceedings being initiated.
But the women who made them could be called at the forthcoming trial, said Gloria Allred, who represents 29 of the accusers.
She said prosecutors in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, have appealed for other victims to come forward. The prosecutors will then decide whether or not to call them as witnesses if they think it ‘might assist them (proving) Andrea Constand is credible’.
Mrs Allred said: ‘I do imagine it will be a very, very vigorous cross-examination of any women who may be called as witnesses, who may be called because they have alleged similar conduct by Mr Cosby. I think many of these women have indicated they are prepared to do that. They are going to demonstrate that kind of courage and tell their truth.’
Among those who may be called is Judith Huth, 55, who has claimed Cosby molested her at the Playboy Mansion in 1974 when she was 15.
Yesterday Cosby’s lawyer Miss Pressley said he had been ‘accused unjustly of a crime’ and it was ‘upsetting’. She said: ‘My client is not guilty. And there will be no consideration on our part of any sort of arrangement.’
In a criminal complaint Miss Constand, 42, a massage therapist from Toronto, claims Cosby invited her back to his Pennsylvania mansion, drugged her and had sex with her without her consent.
The case was investigated in 2005 but prosecutors did not bring charges. It was re-opened in the summer when a deposition by Cosby from the original case was unsealed for the first time in which he admitted buying powerful sedatives to use on women for sex.