(Black serial rapist) Bill Cosby in the news

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Montco DA Says Statute of Limitations Prevents New Prosecution of Bill Cosby
July 7, 2015 12:18 PM
By Jim Melwert

NORRISTOWN, Pa. (CBS) — The latest bombshell revelations in the long-running Bill Cosby sexual predation case won’t spark any criminal charges against the disgraced entertainer.

Newly unsealed court documents show Cosby admitting he obtained prescription sedatives for women he wanted to have sex with.

A Temple University staffer was the first to bring accusations against Cosby in 2005, for an incident she said happened at Cosby’s mansion in Cheltenham in 2004. No charges were ever filed in that case and a private settlement was reached.

Today, Montgomery County district attorney Risa Ferman said there’s nothing her office can do with the new information regarding the prescription drugs or Cosby’s admissions. :mad:

“As we sit here today, in 2015, we’re in a situation where any statute of limitations for any criminal acts would have long since passed,” she told KYW Newsradio.

Ferman says she can’t speculate on if or how the unsealed testimony might have changed the decision of her predecessor, Bruce Castor, not to bring charges against Cosby.

But, she says, there is something to be taken from this:

“The idea that if you have to drug someone to get their consent, then it’s not consensual. It’s something we need to be talking about openly with young men and young women as they’re going off to college and then going out into the world.”

Ferman says even though the newly revealed documents won’t be used to bring any criminal charges against Cosby, she agrees that they could be used in civil cases against him.
 
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Lawyers: Cosby’s Drugs-Sex Admission Could Help Women’s Suit
July 7, 2015 10:54 AM

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Bill Cosby’s admission that he obtained Quaaludes to give young women he was pursuing for sex could bolster defamation claims lodged by his accusers, the women’s lawyers said after The Associated Press reported on newly released court documents.

Cosby in sworn testimony unsealed Monday admitted that he gave the now-banned sedative to at least one of his accusers and to unnamed others. His lawyer interfered before he could answer deposition questions in 2005 about how many women were given drugs and whether they knew about it.

“If today’s report is true, Mr. Cosby admitted under oath 10 years ago sedating women for sexual purposes,” said Lisa Bloom, attorney for model Janice Dickinson, who contends she was drugged and raped. “Given that, how dare he publicly vilify Ms. Dickinson and accuse her of lying when she tells a very similar story?”

The AP had gone to court to compel the release of a deposition in a sexual abuse lawsuit filed by former Temple University employee Andrea Constand — the first of a cascade of lawsuits against Cosby that have severely damaged his image as doting TV dad Dr. Cliff Huxtable on “The Cosby Show.”

His lawyers objected to the release of the material, arguing it would embarrass him. Ultimately, a judge seized on Cosby’s public moralizing as he unsealed portions of the deposition.

“The stark contrast between Bill Cosby, the public moralist and Bill Cosby, the subject of serious allegations concerning improper (and perhaps criminal) conduct, is a matter as to which the AP — and by extension the public — has a significant interest,” U.S. District Judge Eduardo Robreno wrote.

Cosby, 77, has been accused by more than two dozen women of sexual misconduct dating back more than four decades. He has never been charged with a crime, and the statute of limitations on most of the accusations has expired.

The entertainer settled Constand’s lawsuit under confidential terms in 2006. Even the judge never saw the settlement terms, though the documents show that Cosby offered the accuser an “educational trust” fund.

His lawyers in the Philadelphia case did not immediately return telephone and email messages Monday. The AP does not typically identify victims of sexual assault, but Constand’s lawyer said she consented to being identified.

Cosby’s lawyers insisted during the deposition that two of the accusers knew they were taking Quaaludes from him, according to the documents.

Nevertheless, attorneys for some of the numerous women suing Cosby seized on the testimony as powerful corroboration of what they have been saying all along.

“The women have been saying they’ve been drugged and abused, and these documents appear to support the allegations,” said lawyer Joe Cammarata, who represents accuser Therese Serignese, one of three women suing Cosby for defamation in Massachusetts. She has also agreed to have her name published.

Celebrity attorney Gloria Allred, representing other women, said she also hopes to use the admission in civil court cases against the comedian.

Cosby, giving sworn testimony in the lawsuit accusing him of sexually assaulting Constand at his home near Philadelphia in 2004, said he obtained seven Quaalude prescriptions in the 1970s. Constand’s lawyer asked if he had kept the sedatives through the 1990s — after they were banned — but was frustrated by objections from Cosby’s attorney.

“When you got the Quaaludes, was it in your mind that you were going to use these Quaaludes for young women that you wanted to have sex with?” lawyer Dolores M. Troiani asked.

“Yes,” Cosby answered.

“Did you ever give any of these young women the Quaaludes without their knowledge?”

Cosby’s lawyer again objected, leading Troiani to petition the federal judge to force Cosby to cooperate.

Cosby later said he gave Constand three half-pills of Benadryl, though Troiani in the documents voices doubt that was the drug involved. Constand thought he was giving her an herbal remedy, she said in her lawsuit. She recalls having him touch her breasts and put her hand on his penis, and woke up to find her clothes askew, according to her lawsuit. Cosby called any sexual contact consensual, according to Troiani’s summary of his deposition testimony.

“This evidence shows a pattern in which defendant ‘mentored’ naive young women and introduced drugs into the relationship, with and without the woman’s knowledge, in order for him to achieve sexual satisfaction,” Troiani wrote in a motion to compel Cosby to answer deposition questions.

Cosby had fought the AP’s efforts to unseal the testimony, with his lawyer arguing that the deposition could reveal details of Cosby’s marriage, sex life and prescription drug use.

“It would be terribly embarrassing for this material to come out,” lawyer George M. Gowen III argued in June. He also said the material would “prejudice him in eyes of the jury pool in Massachusetts,” where Cosby is fighting defamation lawsuits brought by the women who say his representatives smeared them by accusing them of lying.

The judge had temporarily sealed some documents in the Constand lawsuit but never ruled on a final seal before the case was settled. Under federal court rules in Pennsylvania, documents must be unsealed after two years unless a party can show specific harm. Robreno ruled that Cosby’s potential embarrassment was insufficient.

Robreno asked last month why Cosby was fighting the release of his sworn testimony, given that the accusations in the Constand lawsuit already were public. “Why would he be embarrassed by his own version of the facts?” Robreno said.

Cosby resigned in December from the board of trustees at Temple, where he was the popular face of the Philadelphia school in advertisements, fundraising campaigns and commencement speeches.

Lawyer Gayle Sproul, representing the AP, in court last month called the married Cosby “an icon” who “held himself out as someone who would guide the public in ways of morality.”

Troiani, summarizing her evidence, painted a starkly different picture.

Cosby “has evidenced a predilection for sexual contact with women who are unconscious or drugged. His victims are young, ‘star struck’ and totally trusting of his public persona,” Troiani argued.
 
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Disney Removes Bill Cosby Statue at Hollywood Studios

Walt Disney World officials say a bronze statue of Bill Cosby is being removed from the Hollywood Studios theme park.

Local news outlets report the statue was being removed after the park closed Tuesday night. Disney offered no other comment.

The removal of the statute at Disney's Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame Plaza came after court documents unsealed on Monday revealed that Cosby testified in 2005 that he'd obtained Quaaludes with the intent of giving them to women he wanted to have sex with.

The 77-year-old Cosby hasn't commented on the documents, which were secret for a decade until Monday, after The Associated Press went to court to get them released. He has never been charged with a crime and has repeatedly denied sexual assault allegations.
 
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Cosby Accuser Asks That All Testimony Be Made Public
By MARYCLAIRE DALE
Published at 8:37 PM EDT on Jul 8, 2015

Bill Cosby's first accuser asked a judge Wednesday to release the comedian's full deposition in her sex-assault lawsuit, including questions he answered under oath about his use of quaaludes and other drugs, his alleged use of hush money to silence women, his deal to have an accuser's story spiked and his alleged affairs with other women.

Andrea Constand's lawyer argued in a sanctions motion that Cosby, along with his lawyers and agents, broke the confidentiality agreement that sealed the 2006 court settlement with public comments made over the years and again this week. Yet she has been powerless to respond, her lawyer said.

"The release of these documents will assist other women who have been victimized and bring awareness to the fact that sexual assault is not just committed with a gun or knife but is also committed by mentors who engage in exploitative behaviors," lawyer Dolores M. Troiani wrote in asking the judge to sanction Cosby and his lawyers.

Lawyers for Cosby, 77, did not immediately return calls for comment.

The motion comes after U.S. District Judge Eduardo Robreno unsealed excerpts from Cosby's deposition this week in response to an Associated Press request, concluding that the public had a right to see "the stark contrast" between Cosby the public moralist and the statements he made under oath about his lifestyle and conduct.

The excerpts show Cosby admitting that he obtained quaaludes in the 1970s so that he could give them to young women he pursued for extramarital sex. Asked if they knew what they were taking, his lawyers objected and he never answered.

Frustrated by their attempts to dodge questions, Troiani went to court then to force Cosby and his lawyers to cooperate in the pre-trial deposition. She asked that Robreno force the comedian to answer 50 questions about his lifestyle, drug use and sexual encounters with 13 other "Jane Doe" women who had come forward to say Cosby had molested and perhaps drugged them years earlier.

The deposition eventually proceeded. And Troiani now wants his answers to those questions made public.

"Although some of the women engaged in consensual relations with Cosby, their accounts substantiated defendant's alleged predilection for somnophilia," Troiani wrote in her motion Wednesday, referring to a term used to describe someone aroused by having sex with an unconscious person.

Cosby settled the case after his deposition for an unknown sum. Both sides agreed to keep the terms confidential and not comment on what did or didn't happen between them.

His lawyers have not returned messages seeking comment since the release of the deposition excerpts, which they had fought. However, ABC reported that an unidentified Cosby associate, in a statement this week, said Cosby settled the suit to save accusers the embarrassment of testifying in open court. Cosby's representatives have since said the statement didn't come from anyone in the comedian's camp.

Troiani, in her motion, pointed to that statement in support of her motion.

She also said that because the unsealed material does not include Cosby's full answers, supporters could argue that the "seminal question of his admission to administering Quaaludes to sex partners was taken out of context."

She said making public the entire deposition and written settlement would let people decide if that's the case.

Cosby's statements might also be of interest to women now suing him for sexual assault and defamation, she said.

"They have a right to determine what if anything can be used as evidence in their respective cases," said Troiani, who sought permission this week from the Jane Doe witnesses to have Cosby's testimony unsealed.

Cosby has never been charged with a crime and has repeatedly denied the allegations. Most of the sexual misconduct accusations that more than a dozen women have made against him happened too long ago for criminal charges.

The AP generally doesn't name people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they agree to have their names published, as Constand has done.
 
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Groups To Call On Hollywood Chamber Of Commerce To Remove Cosby’s Star
July 8, 2015 10:33 PM

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — A public policy group and a host of civil rights organizations are expected to call for the removal of Bill Cosby’s star from the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson of the Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable and Najee Ali of Project Islamic Hope said in a letter addressed to the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce that a press conference will be held Thursday at 10 a.m.

The request to remove the star comes amid the release of unsealed court documents this week in which the comedian, according to the Associated Press, admitted to giving quaaludes to at least one woman before sex.

gettyimages-459998838.jpg


Cosby received the Walk of Fame star in 1977. In 2014, the word “rapist” was written on the star, but was removed by workers.
 
Re: Comic Hannibal Buress Calls Bill Cosby A “Rapist”

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Philly Program May Remove Bill Cosby Mural
Updated at 12:32 AM EDT on Thursday, Jul 9, 2015

Cosby-Mural.jpg


Philadelphia's Mural Arts Program is considering removing a work featuring entertainer Bill Cosby, the latest fallout from allegations he drugged and sexually assaulted women.

An organization spokeswoman said Wednesday "recent headlines" factored into its decision to move the mural much higher on a list of works up for decommissioning.

The North Philadelphia mural celebrating Father's Day features Cosby in a trademark purple sweater between South African leader Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. It went up in 2008 but had already been considered for decommissioning because the wall under a train bridge where it's painted is in bad shape.

The spokeswoman says no one's called to complain.

In newly unsealed documents, Cosby is shown testifying in 2005 that he'd obtained quaaludes with the intent of giving them to women before sex. A judge unsealed excerpts from Cosby's deposition after a request by The Associated Press.
 
Re: Comic Hannibal Buress Calls Bill Cosby A “Rapist”

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Bill Cosby's First Accuser, Andrea Constand, Was No Aspiring Starlet
Published at 4:58 PM EDT on Jul 8, 2015

Bill Cosby has painted many of his accusers as star-struck gold-diggers - aspiring models and actresses trying to shake him down to get ahead in Hollywood.

Yet the first woman known to have told police she was drugged and violated by the comedian was a college athletic administrator in Philadelphia who initially asked only for an apology from the man she said she regarded as her mentor and friend.

Andrea Constand - whose 2005 lawsuit produced damning testimony from Cosby that was released by a court this week - stands out among the dozens of women who later accused the comedian of sexual assault, and not just because she helped set off the torrent of allegations that have smashed his nice-guy image as TV's Dr. Cliff Huxtable.

Constand was not in show biz and had not been exposed to the 1970s-era sex-and-drug scene in Las Vegas and Hollywood. In 2004, she was a former college athlete whose childhood dream had been to become the first Canadian woman to play professional basketball.

"She's a person of integrity, and if there is a wrong, she's going to stand up for it and do the right thing and be a leader," said Joan Bonvinci, who was her coach at the University of Arizona, where Constand helped lead the team to victory in the 1996 National Women's Invitational Tournament.

A decade ago, Constand, then 30, was finishing a third year as operations director of the Temple University woman's team and thinking about leaving the sport.

Constand had met Cosby, Temple's most famous alumnus and sports fan, in 2002 and frequently socialized with him, sometimes at dinner parties and sometimes alone, at restaurants or his large suburban home. He invited her for one such dinner on Jan. 4, 2004, to offer her career advice, according to court papers.

According to her account, Constand described how stressed she was about the career decision, and Cosby gave her three pills to help her relax. She took them with water and thought they were herbal supplements, according to her lawsuit.

She said she woke up the next morning sore, with her clothes askew and a vague memory of being fondled.

Cosby, questioned under oath, identified the pills as the cold and allergy medicine Benadryl - something Constand's lawyer doubts would have left the 6-foot Constand "semi-conscious" on a couch until 4 a.m.

Cosby, in his deposition, called any sexual encounter consensual and said he fed her a blueberry muffin and hot tea before she left. She said she left on her own.

Constand left Philadelphia after the season ended that March. She stayed in contact with Cosby but said she wrestled with the incident as she studied massage therapy and its attendant code of ethics when it came to touching clients.

She disclosed the encounter to her parents, whom Cosby had befriended, in January 2005. She and her mother called him to demand an apology, which they got, according to the lawsuit.

The next day, Cosby called to suggest he set up an educational trust fund for Constand, the first of four calls he or his agents would place in the ensuing days to offer money, according to her lawsuit. She said she declined.

Instead, Constand filed a police report in her hometown. The Canadian police report was forwarded to Pennsylvania and investigated. Cosby, with his lawyer, talked to police for about 90 minutes.

But the suburban Philadelphia prosecutor in charge of the case, then-District Attorney Bruce Castor of Montgomery County, declined to bring charges, citing Constand's continued conversations with Cosby and the year it took her to call police.

"I think that factors such as failure to disclose in a timely manner and contacts with the alleged perpetrator after the event are factors that weigh toward Mr. Cosby," Castor said at the time. "Much exists in this investigation that could be used to portray persons on both sides of the issue in a less-than-flattering light."

Constand by then had hired a former prosecutor, Dolores M. Troiani, to guide her through the ordeal. "We're still blaming the victim," an exasperated Troiani said after Castor's decision.
She instead sued Cosby in federal court, accusing him of sexual assault and seeking the federal court minimum of $150,000 in damages.

"I admire her for standing up because it takes a lot of courage to do that," said Bonvinci, now a coach at Seattle University.

Constand also filed a defamation lawsuit alleging a Cosby lawyer smeared her in the tabloid press by accusing her family of demanding money in "a classic shakedown."

Other women soon came forward to buttress Constand's claims. They said they had met Cosby after a performance, asked for help landing an acting job, or, in the case of a then-15-year-old, joined him at a party at the Playboy Mansion. They women said they were assaulted in the 1960s, '70s, '80s and '90s.

By the time Constand settled both lawsuits in 2006 on confidential terms, more than a dozen had agreed to testify on her behalf. And Cosby had admitted, in the deposition partially released this week, that he had obtained quaaludes in the 1970s to give to young women he wanted to take to bed.

On Wednesday, Constand's lawyer asked a judge to release Cosby's full deposition, saying the comic broke the confidentiality pledge. The judge has yet to rule.

"I don't want to talk about Cosby," Constand, now past 40, told a Toronto Sun reporter this week. "It doesn't define me. ... It's in the past. I have a whole other life and I am happy."

But Constand follows several other Cosby accusers on Twitter, including model Beverly Johnson and comedy writer Joan Tarshis, and after the Cosby documents were unsealed on Monday, she tweeted: "YES!" and "SIR!"

Cosby, 77, has not been heard from since the deposition testimony surfaced. He has not been charged with a crime, and the statute of limitations has run out on most of the accusations.
 
Re: Comic Hannibal Buress Calls Bill Cosby A “Rapist”

http://nypost.com/2015/07/12/bill-cosbys-wife-says-accusers-consented-to-drugs-and-sex/

Bill Cosby’s wife says accusers ‘consented’ to drugs and sex
By Stacy Brown
July 12, 2015 | 6:00am

camille_cosby.jpg

Bill Cosby with his wife, "Skinhaid" Camille
Photo: AP


Bill Cosby’s wife knows her husband is a serial philanderer, but believes his scores of accusers consented to drugs and sex, two confidants of the couple say. :rolleyes:

Last week’s revelation that Cosby admitted during a deposition that he intended to ply women with Quaaludes before bedding them barely fazed Camille Cosby, the *insiders told The Post.

“Camille still doesn’t believe that Bill provided drugs and had sex with women without their consent :rolleyes:,” said a source employed by the Cosby family. “She’s well aware of his cheating, but she doesn’t believe that her husband is a rapist.” :rolleyes:

Mrs. Cosby is “a proud, dignified but stubborn woman. You can say that she’s standing by her husband, but really, the more people stand against him, the more she perceives it as an affront to her and all that she’s done to make him a star,” said another source who’s done business with the *Cosbys and remains close to them.

Camille Cosby, 71, who is also her 78-year-old husband’s business manager, demanded last week at a crisis meeting with advisers that their lawyers and p.r. specialists “get back out in front of this,” the business source said.

“I created him, I knew what I was getting and we’ll fix this,” she told the gathering at a meeting at the couple’s Shelburne Falls, Mass., home Tuesday night.

“They are making him out to be such a bad guy, a monster,” Camille said, according to the source.

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Bill and Camille Cosby in 1965
Photo: AP


“People are jumping ship,” she added in an apparent reference to actress Jill Scott, who now says she’s sorry for her staunch support of Cosby, and comedian Jimmy Walker, another onetime defender who now calls America’s Dad the “O.J. Simpson of comedy.”

As prosecutors in Los Angeles and Las Vegas reportedly take a closer look at Cosby’s nearly 50 alleged sexual assaults on women dating back five decades, advisers last week urged him to sever ties with virtually everyone and permanently halt any comeback attempts.

“It’s advisable that you close ranks. That means [cut off] family, Hollywood family, friends, Hollywood friends,” the star was told, according to the business partner.

Camille Cosby remains on Bill’s side, despite his constant cheating.

She “stopped being embarrassed long ago” by her husband’s affairs, the family source said, but cannot tolerate the “invasion of privacy.”

The infidelities were “personal, between Bill and I,” she’s told her circle, the source said.

According to the family source, Camille confided, “You have to allow for space to let your partner do what he wants. I have done that and [Bill] has done that and there’s no jealously, no friction.”

She said every so often the couple goes through an “evaluation period” to determine whether the marriage should continue. “She even once talked to Oprah Winfrey about cleansing herself of baggage every now and again and how it always seems to lead her back to staying with Bill,” the family source said.

Rev. Carl Dianda, the couple’s longtime spiritual adviser who presided over their marriage 51 years ago, told The Post his “heart breaks” for her.

“She made so many sacrifices for him to have a career.”

A Cosby family representative did not return calls for comment.
 
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Walking Away From Bill Cosby: Deserters Keep Adding Up
Updated 3 hours ago

The sexual assault allegations against Bill Cosby had already severely damaged his career even before The Associated Press revealed this week that he admitted under oath in 2005 to obtaining quaaludes he intended to give to women he wanted to have sex with. And though Cosby, 77, has never been charged with a crime and has repeatedly denied past allegations, even the hangers-on are walking away.

A look at the efforts to erase Cosby, and who's sticking with him:

Promoting Awareness Victim Empowerment, a group supporting sexual assault victims, launched a campaign Wednesday to revoke Bill Cosby's Presidential Medal of Freedom.

As of early Monday, more than 7,700 people had signed the petition posted on the White House's "We the People" website. If the petition gets 100,000 signatures by Aug. 7, the White House will review it and respond.

President George W. Bush presented the nation's highest civilian honor to Cosby in 2002, citing his revolutionary portrayal of blacks on television and his interest and dedication to education.

"Bill Cosby's name does not belong among this distinguished list," the group said.

Central State University, a historically black college in Wilberforce, Ohio, says it has covered up Bill Cosby's name on a campus sign in front of a building named for him.

Edwina Blackwell Clark, a spokeswoman for Central State University in Wilberforce, tells the Dayton Daily News that the sign in front of the Camille O. and William H Cosby Mass Communications Center no longer displays Cosby's name.

The university said earlier it was considering changing the name of the building. A final decision could be made this fall.

Walt Disney World removed a statue of Cosby from its Hollywood Studios theme park in Florida after it closed Tuesday night, a spokeswoman said.

The statute had been at Disney's Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame Plaza.

The Mural Arts Program in Cosby's native Philadelphia is considering removing a work featuring the entertainer.

"Recent headlines" factored into its decision to move the mural much higher on a list of works up for decommissioning, a spokeswoman said Wednesday.

The mural celebrating Father's Day features Cosby in a trademark purple sweater between South African leader Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

It went up in 2008 but had already been considered for decommissioning because the wall where it's painted — under a train bridge — is in bad shape.

NBC had already walked away from plans to make another Cosby sitcom, TV Land took reruns of the 1980s-era "The Cosby Show" off the air, and Netflix shelved plans for a standup special.

This week, the Bounce television network pulled reruns of the comedian's CBS sitcom "Cosby." The network, which is geared toward black viewers, had aired back-to-back episodes of "Cosby" each weekday.

And the smaller Centric cable network, which is affiliated with BET and aimed at black women, said it was dropping "The Cosby Show," a big chunk of its schedule.

However, Hulu is still offering every episode of "The Cosby Show," and Amazon continues to offer it streaming, along with DVDs.

Black civil rights leaders on Thursday called on the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce to remove Bill Cosby's star from the Hollywood Walk of Fame, saying it could otherwise become a "walk of shame."

"Cosby to black America is an icon, but once an icon figure betrays the trust of the community, we have to withdraw our support and condemn their actions," said Najee Ali, who was among those calling for the star's removal "If they don't remove that star, we can call it the walk of shame."

The chamber said it had no plans to remove Cosby's star, and has never removed one before.

"Once a star has been added to the Walk, it is considered a part of the historic fabric of the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Because of this, we have never removed a star from the Walk," chamber president Leron Gubler said in a statement.

The Smithsonian Institution is standing behind a museum exhibition that relies in part on the art collection of Bill Cosby and his wife.

The Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art opened the exhibition of African and African-American artwork in November.

The museum said Tuesday that it does not condone Cosby's behavior but that the exhibit is about the artworks and the artists, not about the owners of the collections.

Project 21, a black conservative leadership network, on Friday criticized the federal judge who unsealed portions of Bill Cosby's deposition.

The judge had said he unsealed the 2005 documents because local court rules favor transparency and because Cosby's claims of embarrassment were insufficient legal grounds to keep them sealed.

He also said Cosby "voluntarily narrowed (his) zone of privacy" when he used the media "soap box" to comment on other people's behavior.

But Cosby's public statements about parenthood, crime and other issues shouldn't have played a part in the decision, said Project 21, sponsored by the Washington-based National Center for Public Policy Research.

The documents should be sealed or unsealed based solely on "legal reasons, not due to Cosby's beliefs," the group said.
 
Re: Comic Hannibal Buress Calls Bill Cosby A “Rapist”

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Obama sounds off on Cosby rape claims
By Geoff Earle
July 15, 2015 | 2:36pm

obama.jpg

President Obama and Bill Cosby
Photo: Getty Images


WASHINGTON – President Obama on Wednesday denounced the behavior that comedian Bill Cosby has acknowledged committing as “rape.”

The president was asked at a White House press conference whether Cosby’s “Medal of Freedom” should be revoked, following revelations by Cosby in court documents that he gave Quaaludes to women before having sex with them.

Obama offered no defense of the comedian, once considered one of the most respected figures in American entertainment.

He said there was “no precedent” for revoking the medal, that nation’s highest civilian honor, and said there wasn’t a mechanism for doing so. He said he has a policy of not commenting on specific cases.

Then the normally cautious Obama surprised reporters by going for the jugular, in a clear reference to the court documents that were unsealed this month.

“I’ll say this. If you give a woman — or a man for that matter — without his or her knowledge a drug and then have sex with that person without consent, that’s rape,” Obama said.

“And this country — any civilized country — should have no tolerance for rape.”

Cosby admitted in a 2005 legal deposition that he obtained prescriptions for Quaaludes and used them to drug women with whom he had sex.

“She meets me back stage. I give her Quaaludes. We then have sex,” Cosby said.

Multiple women have come forward with accusations that Cosby assaulted them over the years. Many say he slipped drugs into their beverages before assaulting them. Cosby and his attorneys have denied the charges

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) is leading a petition drive to deny Cosby the medal, which he was awarded in 2002, because of his admissions.
 
Re: Comic Hannibal Buress Calls Bill Cosby A “Rapist”

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Cosby Paid Women After Sex, Kept Affairs :rolleyes: From Wife: Report
Published at 10:54 PM EDT on Jul 18, 2015

Bill Cosby, in sworn testimony a decade ago, said he had paid women after sex to keep the affairs from his wife, suggested he was skilled at understanding nonverbal cues for sexual consent and called one of his accusers a liar.

The New York Times reported the revelations Saturday after obtaining a copy of a transcript from a deposition Cosby gave in a lawsuit filed by a former Temple University employee who alleges he drugged and molested her.

According to excerpts from the deposition released a month ago, and first obtained by The Associated Press, Cosby admitted he procured quaaludes with the intent of giving them to young women he wanted to have sex with.

The Times, citing the transcript, reports that Cosby told lawyers for Andrea Constand, who worked at Temple in Philadelphia and brought the suit, that he was a "pretty decent reader of people and their emotions in these romantic sexual things."

He said he offered to pay for Constand's education and paid another woman whom he had met in 1976. He said he funneled money to one of the women he had sex with through his agent so his wife wouldn't find out.

Cosby's publicist, David Brokaw, did not immediately return a message seeking comment late Saturday.

Although Constand never sought any money from Cosby, the comedian said he figured his wife would have known he was helping her with furthering her education but said, "My wife would not know it was because Andrea and I had had sex," according to the newspaper.

Constand's case was settled on confidential terms.

Cosby has denied accusations made by dozens of women who claim he sexually assaulted them. According to the Times, Cosby denied he is a sexual predator who assaulted many women, and he has never been charged with a crime, but the accusations have shattered Cosby's good-guy, fatherly image.

At points during the deposition, Cosby also described his sexual encounters with the women in detail.

The deposition also paints Cosby as emotionally charming, but he also spoke about disregarding relationships to pursue other women.

He suggested he was skilled at understanding women and nonverbal cues signaling sexual consent. :rolleyes:

Cosby, who has been married since 1964, said he sparked a relationship with Constand in the early 2000s and invited her to his house and had conversations about her family and plans for future education.

The relationship between the two continued for several years until, Constand says, Cosby drugged and molested her in his Pennsylvania home.

Cosby said during the deposition that Constand was "a liar."

Although Cosby painted himself as sensitive to Constand, he told her attorney, "I think Andrea is a liar and I know she's a liar because I was there," when he was asked how he felt about Constand crying during her deposition in the case.

Bruce Castor, the suburban Pennsylvania prosecutor who declined to bring charges in the Constand case a decade ago, told the AP earlier this month that if he is elected again he would review the unsealed court documents to see if Cosby committed perjury.

The Associated Press generally does not name people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they agree to have their names published, as Constand has done.
 
Re: Comic Hannibal Buress Calls Bill Cosby A “Rapist”

http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news...aaudes-Womanizer-Philadelphia--317070481.html

NY Times: Cosby Deposition Reveals How He Pursued Women
By Wire Reports and NBC10 Staff
Updated at 1:02 AM EDT on Sunday, Jul 19, 2015

Bill Cosby admitted to seducing a young model by showing interest in her father’s cancer, promised to mentor other women before having sex with them and tried to use his money to prevent his wife from finding out about his extramarital affairs, according to the New York Times.

The New York Times obtained the full deposition from Bill Cosby when he was questioned at a Philadelphia hotel ten years ago while defending himself against a lawsuit filed by a woman who accused him of drugging and molesting her.

The New York Times reports Cosby denied being a sexual predator but admitted to being a womanizer who used various means to seduce young women.

The new information comes after U.S. District Judge Eduardo Robreno unsealed excerpts from Cosby's deposition in response to an Associated Press request, concluding that the public had a right to see "the stark contrast" between Cosby the public moralist and the statements he made under oath about his lifestyle and conduct. The excerpts show Cosby admitting that he obtained quaaludes in the 1970s so that he could give them to young women he pursued for extramarital sex. Asked if they knew what they were taking, his lawyers objected and he never answered.

Frustrated by their attempts to dodge questions, attorney Dolores M. Troiani went to court then to force Cosby and his lawyers to cooperate in the pretrial deposition. She asked that Robreno force the comedian to answer 50 questions about his lifestyle, drug use and sexual encounters with 13 other "Jane Doe" women who had come forward to say Cosby had molested and perhaps drugged them years earlier.

The deposition eventually proceeded. And Troiani now wants his answers to those questions made public.

Cosby settled the case after his deposition for an unknown sum. Both sides agreed to keep the terms confidential and not comment on what did or didn't happen between them.

Cosby has never been charged with a crime and has repeatedly denied the allegations. Most of the sexual misconduct accusations that more than a dozen women have made against him happened too long ago for criminal charges.
 
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http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news...umentary-About-Black-Stuntmen--317920521.html

Cosby Cut From Documentary About Black Stuntmen
Published at 4:05 PM EDT on Jul 21, 2015

Bill Cosby has been cut from a documentary about black stuntmen.

Producer Nonie Robinson said Tuesday that Cosby has been removed from "Painted Down." The documentary is about the history of white stunt performers who were "painted down" to look black to double for black actors. :rolleyes:

For the film, now in post-production, Cosby gave an interview about his experience with the practice on the 1960s TV series "I Spy."

Robinson said the film, which also features Whoopi Goldberg, had been "standing by" Cosby. But after the latest release of depositions in which Cosby said he gave women Quaaludes in order to have sex with them, Robinson said axing :p him from the documentary "wasn't difficult."

More than two dozen women have accused Cosby of sexual misconduct in the past four decades.
 
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http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/20...udes-doesnt-mean-he-sexually-assaulted-women/

Cosby’s Lawyers Argue His Admission To Using Quaaludes Doesn’t Mean He Sexually Assaulted Women
July 22, 2015 9:12 AM

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Bill Cosby’s lawyers argued on Tuesday that his admission to using quaaludes in the 1970s doesn’t mean he drugged and sexually assaulted women.

The comments came as the lawyers asked a court to preserve the confidentiality of Cosby’s 2006 settlement in a sexual-battery lawsuit, which the accuser wants unsealed.

Cosby’s lawyers instead attacked the weekend release of his deposition by a court reporting service and said the deposition and other filings unsealed this month have led to erroneous reports that brand Cosby a rapist.

“The media immediately pounced, inaccurately labeling the released testimony as defendant’s ‘confession’ of ‘drugging’ women and assaulting them,” Cosby lawyers Patrick O’Connor and George Gowen wrote. “Reading the media accounts, one would conclude that defendant has admitted to rape. And yet defendant admitted to nothing more than being one of the many people who introduced quaaludes into their consensual sex life in the 1970’s.” :rolleyes:

Cosby, who’s 78 years old, has been married for more than half a century. A federal judge in Philadelphia cited his self-imposed role as a “public moralist” in deciding to release long-sealed documents that contained excerpts from his deposition, in which he speaks of getting quaaludes to give women before sex.

Cosby, who starred as Dr. Cliff Huxtable on “The Cosby Show” from 1984 to 1992, said that he did not take drugs or drink alcohol during the encounters with the women.

“There are countless tales of celebrities, music stars, and wealthy socialites in the 1970’s willingly using quaaludes for recreational purposes and during consensual sex,” his lawyers wrote, noting the pills were then called “disco biscuits.” :rolleyes:

The decade-old deposition represents the only time Cosby is known to have testified under oath about sexual-assault allegations. A former Temple University employee, Andrea Constand, told police Cosby had drugged and sexually assaulted her at his Philadelphia-area home. She called Cosby a friend and mentor. Cosby in the deposition portrayed her as a willing partner. She sued him after a prosecutor declined to press charges.

More than two dozen women have come forward since 2005 to accuse Cosby of molesting them. His agents have disputed many of their accounts, and he has not been charged with a crime.

The Associated Press obtained the full transcripts of Cosby’s deposition from the court recording agency on Sunday, a day after The New York Times reported it had obtained them.
 
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http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2015/07/24/cosby-mural-removed-amid-details-of-sex-drugging-claims/

Cosby Mural Removed Amid Details Of Sex, Drugging Claims
July 24, 2015 5:50 AM

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A Philadelphia mural featuring Bill Cosby has been painted over as new details emerge of his testimony in a sexual-assault lawsuit.

The city’s Mural Art s Program says the fatherhood-themed mural in North Philadelphia was deteriorating and already scheduled for removal.

But spokeswoman Cari Feiler Bender says the date was moved up amid renewed allegations that Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted women. A deposition released this month shows the married father of five acknowledged he got sedatives to give to women before sex.

He says the sexual activity with various women was consensual. He has never been charged with a crime.

Cosby gave the deposition in a 2005 lawsuit.

The 2008 mural showed Cosby wearing a trademark sweater like those he wore as a beloved dad on his hit TV show.

The mural also featured Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu.
 
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http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news...ge-Professorship-Discontinued--318553621.html

Spelman College Discontinues Bill Cosby Professorship
Published at 11:24 PM EDT on Jul 25, 2015

A historically black college is discontinuing its endowed professorship with Bill Cosby after recent details emerged of his testimony in a sexual-assault lawsuit.

Spelman told The Associated Press in a statement Friday that the college has parted ways with the 78-year-old actor and comedian. A deposition released this month shows the married father of five acknowledged he got sedatives to give to women before sex.

The program was established in the name of Cosby and his wife, Camille, to bring positive attention and scholars to the campus. The Cosbys donated $20 million to the college in 1988.

Cosby says the sexual activity with various women was consensual. :rolleyes: He has never been charged with a crime. :rolleyes:

Spelman suspended its endowed professorship with Cosby last year.
 
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http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/20...victims-appear-on-cover-of-new-york-magazine/

Dozens Of Bill Cosby’s Alleged Victims Appear On Cover Of New York Magazine
July 27, 2015 8:58 AM
By Jan Carabeo

new+york+magazine+cosby+women+cover+edit.jpg


PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — A powerful New York Magazine cover was released Monday morning and inside it was an article profiling dozen of women who have publicly accused comedian Bill Cosby of sexual assault.

The project was six months in the making. Inside the pages of the magazine, each woman shared her individual experience.

The magazine shows the faces of alleged assault and their stories which span decades. Featured are 35 of the 46 women who say Bill Cosby sexually assaulted them.

The New York Magazine cover quickly crashed the website overnight.

The feature is entitled, “Cosby: The Women, An Unwelcome Sisterhood.”

One by one they tell their stories. New York Magazine posted to its Twitter Beverly Johnson’s account.

She said in the piece, “The part of it I wasn’t prepared for was the onslaught of women that have been assaulted and them telling me their story because I told them mine.”

Barbara Bowman also shared her experience. She says she was assaulted by Cosby over the course of years.

“I felt like a prisoner; I felt like I was kidnapped and hiding in plain sight. I could’ve walked down any street in Manhattan at any time and said ‘I’m being raped and drugged by Bill Cosby,’ but who the hell would’ve believed me? Nobody, nobody.”

Tamara Green, allegedly raped in the 1970’s, talks about a culture that wouldn’t listen.

“In 2005, Bill Cosby still had control of the media. In 2015, we have social media. We can’t be disappeared. It’s online and can never go away.”

The cover comes after the release of documents from a 2005 sexual assault lawsuit. In them, Cosby admitted giving sedatives to women he wanted to have sex with, but Cosby has always denied wrong doing and has never been criminally charged.

Cosby’s attorneys insist that drugs were only introduced into consensual sexual relationships.

At last check the website is still down, but the magazine says it is working to fix the problem.
 
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http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news...ys-Ability-to-Read-Sexual-Cues-318927761.html

Dyke Accuser Questions Cosby's Ability to 'Read' Sexual Cues
By Maryclaire Dale
Updated at 6:20 PM EDT on Tuesday, Jul 28, 2015

The accuser in the only sex assault case settled by Bill Cosby is questioning his self-described ability to "read" people's cues in sexual situations.

Cosby did not recognize that the Temple University employee he had befriended was gay, the woman's lawyer noted Tuesday in a court filing. The accuser was dating a woman around that time, according to court filings unsealed this month.

"Despite his talent for interpreting female reactions to him, he did not realize plaintiff was gay until the police told him," lawyer Dolores Troiani wrote in the motion.

Cosby's lawyers didn't immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday and haven't returned repeated calls for comment this month.

Cosby has not been charged with a crime :rolleyes: and has denied allegations in the past. According to the New York Times, Cosby denied he is a sexual predator who assaulted many women. :rolleyes:

The two sides continue to battle in court a decade after they settled the accuser's sexual-battery and defamation lawsuit. Each side is accusing the other of breaking the agreement's confidentiality clause through public comments, online posts and court filings.

She now wants terms of their settlement made public. Her 2005 lawsuit accused Cosby of drugging and sexually assaulting her at his Philadelphia-area home. More than two dozen women have since come forward to say that Cosby also molested them.

Cosby in his deposition released this month said he considered his sexual contact with the accuser to be consensual.

"I think that I'm a pretty decent reader of people and their emotions in these romantic sexual things, whatever you want to call them," Cosby said.

The accuser considered Cosby a friend and mentor and had gone to his home one night in early 2004 to discuss making a career change. He offered her pills for her reported stress. She thought she was taking an herbal medication. Cosby told police he had given her Benadryl, but she believed it was something stronger that left her semiconscious. She woke up on his couch at 4 a.m. feeling sore, with her clothes askew.

Cosby said he saw her before she left and did not sense anything amiss.

"I walk out. She does not look angry. She does not say to me, don't ever do that again. She doesn't walk out with an attitude of a huff," he said in his deposition.

Cosby also acknowledged under oath that he had obtained quaaludes in the 1970s to give to women he hoped to seduce. He said that he gave the so-called disco biscuits to one of his accusers when she was 19 and that she had taken the powerful sedative knowingly. His lawyers argued this month that he was "one of the many people who introduced quaaludes into their consensual sex life in the 1970s" and said that does not make him a rapist.

The accuser "never attended a celebrity party or requested to take a disco biscuit (or ever even heard that term, for that matter) or any other drug ... that would render her unconscious," Troiani said in the motion Tuesday.

Troiani argued that Cosby has hired a team of lawyers, agents and publicists to attack accusers and media reports, while the accuser has been forced to remain silent.
 
Re: Comic Hannibal Buress Calls Bill Cosby A “Rapist”

http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2015...pected-to-speak-out-against-bill-cosby-in-la/

Three Additional Accusers Speak Out Against Bill Cosby In LA
August 12, 2015 12:00 PM

cosby-accusers.jpg


LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Three women came forward for the first time on Wednesday to accuse Billy Cosby of victimizing them.

At 11 a.m., the women shared their allegations against Cosby during a press conference alongside attorney Gloria Allred.

COMPLETE COVERAGE: ACCUSERS OF BILL COSBY

One of the victims, Coleen Hughes recalled she met Cosby while she worked as a stewardess on a flight heading to L.A. in the 70s.

According to Hughes, the comedian offered to take her to a nice lunch in Beverly Hills at the Miramar Hotel, now known as the Fairmont Hotel, when they landed. After arriving to the hotel, she took a shower in Cosby’s hotel room while he watched television. She exited the bathroom fully dressed and shared a glass of champagne with the comedian.

Hours later, Hughes said she found herself waking up in a confused state and realized she had been sexually assaulted.

Allred explained the two other victims acted in feature films or television and theater.

One woman, who identified herself as Linda, accused Cosby of sexually assaulting her while she sat in a chair awaiting a job interview. Unlike some of his other accusers, Linda said she was not drugged during the assault.
 
Re: Comic Hannibal Buress Calls Bill Cosby A “Rapist”

http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news...Removed-from-NYU-Film-Workshop-324067461.html

Bill Cosby's Name Removed From NYU Film Workshop
Updated 5 hours ago

New York University has removed Bill Cosby's name from a popular film workshop for high school students.

The decision was reported on Tuesday on NYU Local, a student news website.

Spokesman Matt Nagel told the New York Times that NYU removed William H. Cosby from the name of its Future Filmmakers Workshop "in light of recent events."

The name was removed in the last two weeks.

Cosby's representative declined to comment on the school's decision.

NYU joins other schools that have distanced themselves from Cosby amid allegations by dozens of women about years of sexual misconduct. Cosby, who has never been charged with a crime, says any contact was consensual.

The schools include Ohio's Central State University, which covered Cosby's name from its Mass Communications Center.
 
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