Media, activists show up at Bill Cosby trial

NORRISTOWN » A horde of reporters with their media trucks and activists with banners showing support for survivors of sexual assault congregated outside the Montgomery County Courthouse as Bill Cosby’s sex assault retrial headed toward a conclusion.

“Mr. Bill Cosby is in the building,” one man uttered as he scanned the scene before entering the courthouse to take care of unrelated business on Tuesday.

Passersby in vehicles honked horns while some citizens lined security fences to catch a glimpse of Cosby’s wife, Camille, as she entered the courthouse to watch the defense lawyers’ 2-hour closing arguments to the jury and then left when those arguments concluded.

Holding a black and white banner embossed with Cosby’s image and the words “Don’t Let Rapists Go Free #End SoL,” activists with Care2 and We Support the Survivors of Bill Cosby held a rally to support survivors of sexual assault and to raise awareness about statutes of limitations for rape and sexual assault.

“Statutes of limitations on rape and sexual assault are a predator’s best friend and a victim’s worst nightmare,” said Lacey Kohlmoos, organizing strategist at Care2, an online social networking and advocacy organization.

Kohlmoos said she showed up at the Cosby trial to represent the more than 90,000 people, including 13,000 in Pennsylvania, who signed a Care2 petition demanding state legislatures abolish statute of limitations for sexual assault and rape.

“We stand with them (survivors of sexual assault) and we will abolish these statutes of limitations because justice should know no time limit,” Kohlmoos said.

According to Kohlmoos, currently 30 states still have statutes of limitations for sexual assault.

Cosby, who is accused of sexually assaulting Andrea

Constand, a former Temple University athletic department employee, at his Cheltenham home in January 2004, was charged with aggravated indecent assault on Dec. 30, 2015, before the 12-year statute of limitations

to file charges expired.

Kohlmoos said statutes of limitations “are problematic because so many survivors take years, decades even, to be able to come to terms with the trauma that happened to them” and find the courage to charge an offender.

“To tell them then, ‘Oh, sorry, time’s run out for you, you’ll never get justice ever,’

that just breaks my heart as a Pennsylvania resident, as a Pennsylvania woman, as a Pennsylvania mother,” Kohlmoos said. “So I hope that we can abolish the statute of limitations on rape and sexual assault here in Pennsylvania and then I hope we can encourage other states to do so as well.

“Anything less illustrates a complete failure of our justice

system to hold sexual abusers accountable and to prioritize the well-being of survivors,” Kohlmoos added.

Bird Milliken, who described herself as a local activist, came out to support Care2 and a national campaign to abolish statutes of limitations on sexual assault.

“The goal is to change the laws on a national basis,” Milliken added.

Milliken brought with her glass jars embossed with the words “We Stand In Truth” that were offered to those who stopped by to support the women who accused Cosby of sexual misconduct.

Their message did not resonate with everyone. One woman strolled by the rally with her dog and mumbled in earshot of the activists, “You need to get a life.”

By late Tuesday afternoon, with word that jury deliberations were nearing, the line of media vans and trucks stretched a full block and reached around the corner. That media presence is likely to remain outside the courthouse until there is a verdict.

During Cosby’s first trial last June, which ended in a mistrial, that jury deliberated 52 hours over six days.