13 women to testify against Bill Cosby
AP on September 8, 2016, 2:55 am
They were models and aspiring actresses. One was a flight attendant. Another was a masseuse.
Thirteen women who say Bill Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted them over the years have agreed to testify against him in the only criminal case stemming from the allegations.
Prosecutors say the women's experiences show that Cosby is a serial offender and that the one case he's charged in - an alleged assault at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004 - is part of a pattern of abuse dating to the 1960s.
One starlet said she lost consciousness after Cosby poured her a few glasses of Champagne and woke up naked and sore. Another said she felt woozy and had blurred vision after he insisted she take a couple of pills.
A judge hasn't said if he'll allow the women to take the stand.
If he does, their testimony could widen the scope of 79-year-old Cosby's trial, slated for June, into a close examination of his treatment of women over the last six decades _ from his time as a fledgling comedian to his worldwide fame as a TV sitcom star dubbed 'America's Dad.'
Cosby's criminal case involves a single encounter with former Temple University employee Andrea Constand, who told police he gave her three unmarked pills and then molested her as she drifted in and out of consciousness.
Prosecutors said they reviewed accusations made by 50 women and found 13 who said they were also drugged or intoxicated by Cosby before he molested them. Many of those women came forward last year as Pennsylvania authorities were deciding whether to reopen the Constand case.
One of the prospective witnesses, then an aspiring actress, said Cosby assaulted her at a home near Reno, Nevada, in 1984 after telling her agent and her parents that he wanted to mentor her.
Cosby's lawyers say they'll oppose any testimony from other accusers.
They suggest he's a wealthy target for the many women he's met during decades as an A-list celebrity.
Defence lawyer Angela Agrusa told reporters that the accusers have been paraded before the media by lawyer Gloria Allred and others without their accounts of abuse being investigated.
"We have seen a barrage of new accusers claiming, `Me, too,'"Agrusa said.
Cosby spokesman Andrew Wyatt brought race into the equation, saying Allred and others have trampled on Cosby's civil rights.
