The Associated Press
Maryclaire Dale
NORRISTOWN, Pa.—Bill Cosby was charged yesterday with sexually assaulting an Ontario woman at his home 12 years ago—the first criminal charges brought against the comedian out of the torrent of allegations that destroyed his good-guy image as America’s Dad.
The case sets the stage for perhaps the biggest Hollywood celebrity trial of the mobile-all-the-time era and could send the 78-year-old Cosby to prison in the twilight of his life.
The woman at the centre of the case is Andrea Constand, a Toronto massage therapist who was a Temple University employee in Pennsylvania at the time of the alleged assault.
She told police that Cosby drugged her and violated her by putting his hands down her pants at his mansion in suburban Philadelphia in 2004, but no charges were laid initially.
Cosby has been charged with aggravated indecent assault, punishable by five-10 years behind bars and a $25,000 fine.
He was arraigned yesterday afternoon and will remain free on bail pending trial.
Prosecutors accused Cosby of plying Constand with pills and wine, then penetrating her with his fingers without her consent while she was drifting in and out of consciousness—unable to resist or cry out.
She was “frozen, paralysed, unable to move,” said Montgomery County District Attorney-elect Kevin Steele.
In court documents, prosecutors said the drugs were the cold medicine Benadryl or some other, unidentified substance.
Prosecutors also said there probably are other women who similarly were drugged and violated by Cosby.
Steele urged them to come forward, as well.
The charge was laid just days before the 12-year statute of limitations for bringing charges was set to run out.
Cosby had acknowledged under oath a decade ago that he had sexual contact with Constand but said it was consensual.
Calls to his attorneys were not immediately returned
Prosecutors re-opened the case over the summer as damaging testimony was unsealed in a related civil lawsuit by Constand against Cosby, and as dozens of other women came forward with similar accusations that made a mockery of his image as the wise and understanding Dr. Cliff Huxtable from TV’s “The Cosby Show.”
Many of those alleged assaults date back decades, and the statute of limitations for bringing charges has expired in nearly every case.
A lawyer for Constand said her now 42-year-old client welcomed the charges.
“She feels that they believe her and, to any victim, that is foremost in your mind: are people going to believe me,” said attorney Dolores Troiani.
“Naturally, it is troubling that it took until the 11th hour for this day to arrive.
“She is hopeful that her patience has encouraged other victims to come forward,” Troiani added.
The charge adds to the towering list of legal problems facing Cosby, including defamation and sex-abuse lawsuits filed in Massachusetts, L.A., and Pennsylvania.
A key question if the case goes to trial is whether the judge will allow supporting testimony from other accusers to show similar “bad acts,” even though it is too late to bring charges in most, if not all, of those instances.
The judge could decide such testimony would be unfair.
