Bill Cosby will be released from prison today after Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court overturned his sexual assault conviction in a surprise decision, ruling that testimony from five women who told a jury that he’d abused them on separate occasions over 30 years impeded his chances of a fair trial.
The Justices also ruled that a promise by Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce Castor that he was not going to prosecute Cosby led the comedian to make incriminating comments in a civil deposition, that prosecutors ended up using to make their case against him.
Cosby, 83, is expected to be released from the SCI Phoenix in Skippack Township later today.
In their 79-page ruling, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justices gave two reasons for overturning the conviction;
1) Testimony from five women who had nothing to do with the charges but who said he’d abused them on other occasions was unfair to Cosby and tainted the jury so they were more likely to find him guilty
2) A public remark by Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce Castor that he was not going to prosecute Cosby led him to make incriminating comments in a civil deposition, that prosecutors later used to make their case against him
Cosby was first arrested in 2015 on suspicion of drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand at his home in Pennsylvania in 2004. It was two weeks before the statute of limitations would have rendered her claims expired.
Constand first reported her allegations to the police in 2005. It triggered an investigation which was made public. But on February 17, 2005, Montgomery County DA Bruce Castor Jr. announced he would not be prosecuting Cosby. Constand then filed a civil lawsuit and it was in a deposition for that lawsuit that Cosby admitted using Quaaludes on women to try to get them to have sex with him.
Andrea Constand is the woman Cosby was convicted of drugging and sexually assaulting at his Pennsylvania home in 2008. Her allegations against Cosby were the only ones that could be prosecuted because they were just inside of the state’s statute of limitations
Lasha testified about 1986 incident with Cosby when she was 17.
She said he’d invited her to his room at the Las Vegas Hilton and told her he’d help her with her career.
She said she was given pills, they played backgammon and she passed out then woke up the next day undressed, next to Cosby in bed
She said: ‘His robe opened…he smelled like cigar and espresso and his body odor. Here was America’s Dad on top of me. A happily married man with five children, on top of me.’
She testified that Cosby gave her two drinks in his hotel room in Las Vegas in 1989. She said she remembers him stroking her hair but then she passed out.
Heidi Thomas testified that she met Cosby in 1984 and that after taking one sip of wine he’d given her, she passed out.
She said she woke up in his bed in a hotel room in Reno and that she was drowsy for days afterwards.
At least 60 women have testified against Cosby in total either in civil lawsuits or interviews
Over the next ten years, multiple women come forward in the press and civil lawsuits to accuse him but it wasn’t until 2015 that he was charged. He was charged two weeks before the statute of limitations would have rendered Constand’s claims expired. All of the other claims are too old to be prosecuted.
In 2018, he was convicted of sexual assault and sentenced to between three and ten years behind bars.
Constand testified at his trial along with five others who spoke about their own allegations against him.
Those women were Chelan Lasha, Janice Baker Kinney, Janice Dickinson, Lise-Lottw Lublin and Heidi Thomas.
When Cosby, 83, was sentenced for his crimes against Constand, the other accusers seized it as their own justice too. The disgraced comedian always fought his conviction, despite admitting in a deposition that he used Quaaludes on women, without their knowledge, with the hope of later having sex with them.
He was sentenced to between three and ten years but he vowed to serve the full ten because anything less would have required him to express remorse.
Now, lawyers from other trials may seize on the Cosby decision to undo their client’s convictions.
On Wednesday, one of his accusers, Victoria Valentino, told GMA: ‘I’m absolutely in shock
‘My stomach is lurching and I am deeply distressed about the injustice of the whole thing.’
One recent notable case where prosecutors used other witnesses to describe a pattern of behavior rather than testify about a specific crime was that of Harvey Weinstein.
He fought to exclude other women’s testimony from his trial.
Another is the actor Cuba Gooding Jr., who was charged for a handful of crimes after women allegedly involved in multiple other incidents testified to prosecutors.
The law allows the testimony only in limited cases, including to show a crime pattern so specific it serves to identify the perpetrator.
In Cosby’s case, one of his appellate lawyers said prosecutors put on vague evidence about the uncharged conduct, including Cosby´s own recollections in his deposition about giving women alcohol or Quaaludes before sexual encounters.
‘The presumption of innocence just didn´t exist for him,’ Jennifer Bonjean, the lawyer, argued to the court in December.
Prosecutors said Cosby repeatedly used his fame and ‘family man’ persona to manipulate young women, holding himself out as a mentor before betraying them.
Cosby, a groundbreaking Black actor who grew up in public housing in Philadelphia, made a fortune estimated at $400 million during his 50 years in the entertainment industry.
His trademark clean comedy and homespun wisdom fueled popular TV shows, books and standup acts.
He fell from favor in his later years as he lectured the Black community about family values, but was attempting a comeback when he was arrested.
‘There was a built-in level of trust because of his status in the entertainment industry and because he held himself out as a public moralist,’ Assistant District Attorney Adrienne Jappe, of suburban Montgomery County, argued to the justices.
Cosby had invited Constand to an estate he owns in Pennsylvania the night she said he drugged and sexually assaulted her.
Cosby’s wife Camille always stood by him, insisting he was innocent.
In her most recent interview, after the state Supreme Court agreed to hear his appeal, she said: ‘My first reaction is hopefulness, possibilities. The state’s highest court … has said, “Wait a minute. There are some problems here. They can be considered for an appeal.” I’m very, very pleased.’
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