Loses appeal
Cosby’s appeal is dismissed by Montgomery County Judge O’Neill. After O’Neill said in previous hearing evidence was lacking that Cosby had a promise from a previous district attorney he would never be charged over the encounter with Constand, his lawyers had asked for an appeal to Superior Court. O’Neill:
An immediate appeal from these orders would not materially advance the ultimate termination of the matter.
There is no comment from Cosby’s lawyers.
Wants charges dropped based on 2005 deposition immunity
Lawyers for Cosby attempt to have aggravated indecent assault charges against the actor thrown out on the grounds that his 2005 videotaped deposition, in which he admits to drugging Constand, was made under the promise from prosecutors that he would be granted immunity from prosecution. Prosecutors in the current criminal case contend that there is no evidence of a signed immunity agreement, and that the case against Cosby should continue.
Must testify
A federal magistrate judge in Massachusetts rejects arguments by Camille Cosby that her deposition in the Constand case deposition would represent an “undue burden” and that she lacked any first-hand knowledge of the events at issue. Bill Cosby’s lawyer’s will appeal the ruling. The deposition is scheduled for next Wednesday.
Three sex-assault charges, bail set at $1m
Cosby is charged with three counts of aggravated indecent assault on Constand in 2oo4, including that Cosby assaulted his victim while she was unconscious and without consent. DA Steele:
Upon examination of all of the evidence, today we are able to seek justice on behalf of Mr. Cosby’s victim.
From the complaint:
[Cosby rendered Constand] frozen, paralyzed, unable to move” by plying her with pills and wine, then penetrating her with his fingers when she was unconscious or unaware of what was happening.
Bail is set at $1 million. Cosby immediately posted $100,000. As a condition of his bail to surrender his passport. He is scheduled to appear for a preliminary hearing Jan. 14 at 9:30 a.m. That hearing will likely be held at Montgomery County Court in Norristown, according to the court documents. Cosby’s lawyer:
Make no mistake, we intend to mount a vigorous defense against this unjustified charge and we expect that Mr. Cosby will be exonerated by a court of law.
Sues seven accusers for defamation
In response to a defamation suit brought by his accusers, Cosby sues Green, Serignese, Traitz, Louisa Moritz, Bowman, Tarshis and Leslie for defamation, saying:
[The defendants] have made malicious, opportunistic and false and defamatory accusations of sexual misconduct against him. [They have] knowingly published false statements and accusations.
My statement re today's lawsuit filed by @BillCosby against all 7 accusers in Massachusetts lawsuit. pic.twitter.com/XRYoV4gXpC
— Monique Pressley (@MoniquePressley) December 14, 2015
Says Dickinson, Johnson are lying
Vela claims that Cosby never tried to rape her former colleagues Dickinson and Johnson, posting to Facebook:
Them’s fibs, cuz. I was there when both talked on the phone to [various men]. Pretty saucy too…I think they’ll never pass through St. Peter’s Gates with their lips! They need to own up to the truth.
Two new accusers
Allred introduces a further two women who say they were assaulted by Cosby. The first, known only as Dottye, said she was working as a actress in 1984 when she sent Cosby her headshot and was invited to audition privately at his New York City brownstone. When she declined a welcoming drink, she says he insisted, saying one drink wouldn’t cause any harm. After taking a few sips, Cosby suggested they do an exercise and spun her around. She immediately felt dizzy, sick, disoriented, and vomited on his rug.
Things got foggy thereafter, but I do know he took my clothes off and put them in his washing machine. I don’t remember too much of the shower, or walking back down the steps back to the second floor.
She says Cosby leaned her against a chest in the hall, raised her robe and raped her, continuing the assault in the dining room. She says she could not understand at the time why she could not fight him off. Bartlett, the second accuser, says Cosby grabbed her from behind at a University of Pennsylvania track, saying:
Hey, back that thing up here girl, back it on up!
Barrett said as she struggled to get away, Cosby pulled her to him and she felt his “private parts” against her back. Barrett said she complained to her teammates and officials, but that no one knew what to do. Allred:
We will never stop until the last courageous victim who wishes to come forward and speak her truth has done so. Only then will it be enough.
Drops attorney
According to court papers, Cosby drops attorney Martin Singer, who has represented him for years. His new attorney is Christopher Tayback, a former prosecutor, who is with the firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart and Sullivan. Singer does not say when the relationship ended, citing attorney-client privilege. Allred:
Mr. Cosby has decided to hire 700 lawyers to fight one woman.
Rescinds honorary degree
The school’s board of regents vote to rescinding the degree awarded to Cosby in 2003. The school says the interpersonal and sexual violence Cosby is accused of contradicts its mission and values.
Defamation suit continues
Federal Judge Mastroianni says a defamation lawsuit brought against Cosby by three women who say he sexually abused them decades ago can move forward. Cosby’s lawyers had asked the judge to dismiss their suit, arguing that the remarks were personal opinions protected by the First Amendment and legal declarations made in his defense. Green, Serignese and Traitz have accused Cosby of drugging them and then having unwanted sexual contact with them. The defamatory comments range from statements dismissing their accusations as “ridiculous claims” and “absurd fabrication” to longer remarks that sought to discredit the accuser. Mastroianni:
The court recognizes that some jurisdictions do apply a version of the conditional self-defense privilege, which allows individuals, in certain circumstances, to publish defamatory responsive statements necessary to defend their reputation. However … such a privilege does not permit a defendant to knowingly publish false states.
Attorney for women:
We’d expect and hope the judge rejected every one of Mr. Cosby’s attempts to throw the case out of court and allowed the case to proceed.
Rescinds honorary degree
In a letter to students, alumni and staff, the university announces that the University Board of Trustees voted unanimously in favor on President McShae’s motion to revoke the honorary degree the university awarded Cosby in 2001.
The University has taken this extraordinary step in light of Mr. Cosby’s now-public court depositions that confirm many of the allegations made against him by numerous women…Fordham has never before rescinded an honorary degree. A recipient’s actions would have to be both unambiguously dishonorable and have a deep impact. By his own admission, Mr. Cosby’s sexual exploitation of women was premeditated and ongoing. Equally appalling is his longtime strategy of denigrating the reputations of women who accused him of such actions…That Mr. Cosby was willing to drug and rape women for his sexual gratification, and further damage those same women’s reputations and careers to obscure his guilt, hurt not only his victims, but all women, and is beyond the pale.
Removes Cosby’s name from building
Central State University in Wilberforce, OH, says the Camille O. & William H. Cosby Communications Center has been renamed the CSU Communications Center. The school had been temporarily covering Cosby’s name since July while it made a final decision. The Cosby family has donated more than $2 million to the university.
Three accusers come forward
At a press conference in Allred’s Los Angeles office, Whitedeer, Hughes and Tirl say they were victimized by Cosby. Whitedeer says she met Cosby in the early ’70s when she was on a movie set with Cosby, who told her, he was going to interview her in the director’s office.
I felt Cosby’s left hand gently grab my long hair behind my head … his giant frame blocked the door so if anyone should try to enter, they would not be able to see what he was doing. As I looked up his penis was out of his pants and he shoved it in my mouth. His attack was fast with surgical precision and surprise on his side…When Cosby was done, there was a horrible mess of semen all over my face, my clothes and in my hair. He took out a Kleenex to try to wipe off my face. I was bordering between vomiting and passing out. He was mumbling that I had been blessed with his semen as if it was holy water. [He] gloated over my humiliation.
Hughes says she met Cosby while she was an American Airlines flight attendant in the early ’70s on a flight to L.A. They went to her hotel room so she could shower and change clothes and, when she emerged, Cosby had ordered appetizers and champagne which she claims Cosby drank out of her shoe. After she drank a glass of champagne, the last thing she claims to remember was Cosby attempting to hold her hand, after which she woke up hours later.
My clothes were thrown all over the room and I felt semen on the small of my back and all over me. Bill obviously did not use a condom and there was no lunch and he was nowhere to be seen.
She says that when she reminded the comedian of the alleged incident a year, when she saw him on another flight, he “turned pale and said ‘did you ever report that to anyone?'” She replied that she had not. Tirl says that after shooting an episode as a police officer on The Cosby Show on its fifth season she was ushered to Cosby’s dressing room where he locked the door. Although no sexual attack took place, Tirl says:
There was a palpable shift of power. I lost my breath…I had handled being ‘hit on’ many times in the industry, this had far surpassed that. I felt dominated.
Must testify
Cosby is ordered to give a sworn deposition to Allred, regarding Huth’s claims that he sexually abused her when she was 15 years old at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles. Cosby will testify on 9 October, Huth will answer questions from Cosby’s lawyers on 15 October. Cosby’s lawyers had sought to compel Huth to give her deposition before the comedian, but the judge says Cosby should go first. Allred:
We are pleased that we will now be able to move ahead without further delay on Ms. Huth’s case, and we look forward to taking Mr. Cosby’s deposition.
Cosby producer breaks silence
Werner speaks about Cosby and his legacy:
The legacy of the show is obviously very important to me because the show was a groundbreaking show and it portrayed a middle-class African-American family in a very positive way. It had a lot of stories that resonated with families because people watched it together. Obviously it’s a challenging time for Bill Cosby and a challenging time for the show, but I’m hoping that people will still be able to watch the show and identify with the Huxtables.
Lawyer: ‘Women have responsibility’
Cosby’s layer, Pressley, says it is the responsibility of a sexual assault victim to report it and create evidence of the crime. She says such evidence does not exist in the case against Cosby.
The only way for a woman to get the justice that she seeks — and that, if her allegation is true, that she deserves — is to come forward [soon after the crime]. And even if the reasons that the women did not do that are legitimate ones, what cannot happen — in my opinion, in the United States — is that 40 years later there is a persecution tantamount to a witch hunt where there was no prosecution timely and there was no civil suit timely. And there’s not any testimony or any accusation from any of these women that Mr. Cosby in any way bound them, gagged them, prevented them from coming forward and saying whatever their truth was at the time. That’s not what happened.
Cosby accusers cover
New York magazine interviews and photographs 35 of Cosby’s alleged victims, supplementing the story with video interviews with six.
The group of women Cosby allegedly assaulted functions almost as a longitudinal study — both for how an individual woman, on her own, deals with such trauma over the decades and for how the culture at large has grappled with rape over the same time period. In the ’60s, when the first alleged assault by Cosby occurred, rape was considered to be something violent committed by a stranger … But among younger women, and particularly online, there is a strong sense now that speaking up is the only thing to do, that a woman claiming her own victimhood is more powerful than any other weapon in the fight against rape.
Obtained Quaaludes from gynecologist
In the Constand depositions, Cosby admits his Quaalude prescriptions were written by Los Angeles gynecologist and cosmetic surgeon, Leroy Amar.
Attorney: Did he know when he gave you those prescriptions that you had no intention of taking them?
Cosby: Yes. (It is not clear from the deposition how the doctor would have known that)
Attorney: Did you believe at the time that it was illegal for you to dispense those drugs?
Cosby: Yes.
While Cosby admits that he acquired seven prescriptions of Quaaludes with the intent to give the sedatives to young women he wanted to have sex with, he does not admit to actually drugging any women.
Walker surprised by allegations
Walker expresses surprise that Cosby drugged women:
I actually thought that everybody knew about all these women… The thing that shocks me the most is the drugging because the times that I’ve worked with Cosby … [I witnessed] nothing with the drug thing. But the women, I knew about that.
He also says:
I love Bill Cosby. The thing that upsets me the most is that we’re never going to see his work again because he’s gone forever and ever, and it’s unfortunate.
Forced to testify
The California Supreme Court denies Cosby’s petition to review Huth’s suit, which means the civil suit can continue to the trial phase. Huth claims that Cosby sexually assaulted her at the Playboy Mansion in 1974 when she was 15 years old. Cosby’s attorneys had sought dismissal of Huth’s lawsuit on procedural grounds, arguing that she lacked required certification from a mental health professional to support her claims, and claiming she sued him only after failing to extort money from him to buy her silence. Her case is the only one of four that are seeking damages for sexual misconduct — the other three are for defamation. Allred says she will take Cosby’s deposition under oath within the next 30 days, and videotape it:
We are looking forward to Mr. Cosby answering questions under oath at his deposition. It’s a very big victory.