COSBY PLEADS NOT GUILTY ON SEX ASSAULT CHARGE
Get ready for the most sensational celebrity trial of the Twitter age: Bill Cosby was charged with criminal sexual assault — in a decade-old case — by prosecutors in a Philadelphia suburb Wednesday.
It marks the first time charges have been officially brought against the beleaguered comedian, who has been accused by upward of 60 women of drugging and/or raping them in episodes dating back to the mid-1960s.
Assuming the case goes to trial in early 2016, it would be the most notorious since the late superstar Michael Jackson was tried and acquitted of child molestation charges in June 2005 — way before Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and the rest of the social-media news shouters added ‘Beginning of the beginning of the end.’ IN LIFE to the clamor of celebrity media coverage in general.
Cosby, 78, arrived to be arraigned in front of a magistrate in Elkins Park, Pa., at around 2:35 p.m. and was finished and out again within 10 minutes.
Wearing one of his trademark sweaters, Cosby was helped into and out of the courthouse by two people on either side. His lawyers have said recently he has severe eye problems and is nearly blind. He seemed to have trouble seeing the paperwork and his lawyers helped him hold a pen. But he laughed and chatted with his attorneys.
When the judge said, “Mr. Cosby, good luck to you, sir,” he shouted, “Thank you!”
Cosby pleaded not guilty, posted $1 million bail (putting down 10% as called for under Pennsyl- vania law), and turned over his passport as a condition for being released on bail.
The official charge against Cosby is second-degree aggravated indecent assault. If convicted, Cosby could get five to 10 years in prison and up to a $25,000 fine.
“Pills were provided. Wine was provided. The victim was frozen, paralyzed. A person in that condition is not able to give consent,” Montgomery County Assistant District Attorney Kevin Steele said.
Former Temple University employee Andrea Constand expressed gratitude via her legal team for the “consideration, courtesy and professionalism” of Steele’s team. Constand accused Cosby in 2005, alleging he drugged and sexually assaulted her when she visited his then-home outside near Philadelphia in 2004.