Cosby Mistrial

It doesn’t say he is guilty or innocent – just that the entire jury wasn’t convinced of guilt or innocence…

Mistrial declared in Bill Cosby sex-assault trial

A Pennsylvania judge declared a mistrial Saturday after a jury was “hopelessly deadlocked” on sexual-assault charges against Bill Cosby, the comic legend whose legacy as a promoter of wholesome values has been tarnished by a years-long sex and drugging scandal.

As the mistrial was declared, Cosby sat at the defense table with his chin held high, a flat, blank look on his face. Across the well of the courtroom, jurors stood one-by-one in the jury box and said, “Yes,” as the judge asked whether each whether they agreed that the jury is “hopelessly deadlocked.”

The jurors answered without hesitation, but several slumped forward in their chairs, elbows on their knees and fingers knit, looks of frustration on their faces.

After the questioning was done, the entertainer sat back in his chair, holding a slender cane that has been with him inside the courtroom each day to his chest. Cosby’s family was not in the courtroom to hear the judge’s decision.

The jury filed out almost within arm’s reach of Andrea Constand, Cosby’s accuser. She stood respectfully, with a strained smile on her face. Afterwards, prosecutor Kevin Steele announced in court that he will retry Cosby.

The courtroom emptied quickly, but the two main players in this 11-day melodrama lingered. Constand, in the brilliantly white lightweight blazer she’d worn on the witness stand, stood along the edge of the courtroom wall. Six accusers who had attended the trial as spectators, some with tears in their eyes, lined up to console her with long, sad hugs. The former professional basketball player’s face was flush, but her eyes were dry.

Across the courtroom, a small entourage of Cosby aides broke into wide smiles and clapped each other on the back. Amid the celebration, the aging comic sat by himself at his regular spot at the defense table. No one from his family was there to share the moment, and the members of his defense team and support staff had turned their attention elsewhere.

Cosby, knowing that he’ll be tried again, looked pensive as he sat tilted forward with his legs spread wide and his eyes cast to the floor. He draped a long finger across his upper lip, and for several minutes was alone with his thoughts. Then, his expression changed. For a split second, a smile crossed his face.

Finally, one of his defense attorneys, Angela Agrusa, spied him sitting there alone, and went over to offer her arm. They walked down the center aisle of the courtroom together, weaving through celebratory Cosby aides, and journalists. But the path was blocked and they had to stop.

Cosby and his attorney paused momentarily.

“You lead the way,” Cosby said to Agrusa.

Outside the courthouse, Cosby’s press spokesman thrust a fist in the air triumphantly as the comedian made his way down a ramp flanked by metal barricades and a leafy hedge in the rain. A handful of supporters chanted, “Let Bill go,” as Cosby was helped into an idling black SUV. Cosby turned for a moment to a crowd in which journalists outnumbered supporters at least 25-to-one. Then he was gone.

The jurors, who had complained of exhaustion, deliberated 52 hours before finally saying they could not reach a verdict on three counts of aggravated indecent assault against the 79-year-old entertainer. But the hung jury does not end Cosby’s legal troubles because he could be retried on the same charges and is still facing lawsuits filed by some of the 60 women who have accused him of sexual assault, rape or sexual harassment.

As deliberations dragged on, signs of discontent in the jury room kept emerging. The jurors, who had been kept working for 12- and 13-hour days by Steven T. O’Neill, the Montgomery County judge overseeing the case, since beginning their cloistered discussions Monday afternoon, asked to go back to the hotel early on Tuesday. The next day they expressed “concerns” to court officials, though the judge did not reveal the substance of their complaints.

Defense attorneys furiously demanded a mistrial many times in the courtroom during the lengthy deliberations, but Judge O’Neill insisted on letting the jury continue its work. Cosby’s press team angered the judge by holding impromptu news conferences on the courthouse steps, fulminating for a mistrial and criticizing the judge for allowing deliberations to stretch longer than anyone could remember in previous cases held in this scruffy Philadelphia suburb.

Late Thursday morning, just after passing the 30-hour mark in deliberations, jurors formally announced for the first time that they were deadlocked in a one-sentence note saying they could not reach a “unanimous consensus” on any of the counts. The judge gave the standard order to keep trying, but they were ultimately unable to break the deadlock. When he first heard about the deadlock, Cosby walked out of the courtroom with a smile on his face.

 

Cosby’s Lawyers Play the Race Card

Admittedly with the number of white boys recently receiving a hand slap or a pat on the back for raping women – there is the opportunity to cloud the issue.

Cosby’s behind belongs in jail.

The fact that some of the courts have turned college campuses in America into “Free Rape Zones”, speaks more to that “white boy privilege” dysfunction in our courts system than our just and deep moral outrage.

Cosby’s case is rare in America, where money buts you out of almost any crime in the pay for play “Justice” system. I mean Roger Ailes cut to the chase and wrote a $20 million check to keep his as out of court, and possibly jail.

Despite the corruption of the system – Race isn’t the sole reason Cosby is being prosecuted, Our righteous indignation should be reserved for those who have corrupted the system of justice on the basis of race…Not just the likely guilty.

Bill Cosby’s lawyers claim racism for first time

Bill Cosby has long preached the gospel of personal responsibility to fellow blacks, irritating those who fault racism for holding the community back.

But now lawyers for the 79-year-old comedian have suggested for the first time that racial bias is to blame as Cosby faces the prospect of 13 women testifying in court that he drugged and molested them. Twelve of them are white.

Cosby’s legal team raised the issue on the courthouse steps Tuesday after a hearing in his criminal sex assault case in suburban Philadelphia. Whether they intend to bring up race in the courtroom remains to be seen. At a minimum, some legal experts said the defense is trying to influence potential jurors.

“I think that you’ve always got to have in mind who’s your jury pool,” said Los Angeles lawyer Mark Geragos, whose clients have included Michael Jackson. “That’s probably the end game.”

Or the lawyers may have been dutifully carrying out Cosby’s instructions: “It could well be they are expressing the concerns of the client,” said Carl Douglas, who was on O.J. Simpson’s legal Dream Team.

Cosby is set to go on trial next June on charges he drugged and sexually violated Temple University employee Andrea Constand at his home in 2004. He could get 10 years in prison if convicted.

In bringing up race, his legal team took aim at celebrity lawyer Gloria Allred, who represents about half the women who have agreed to testify against Cosby.

Allred “calls herself a civil rights attorney, but her campaign against Mr. Cosby builds on racial bias and prejudice that can pollute the court of public opinion,” the lawyers said in a statement.

“Mr. Cosby is no stranger to discrimination and racial hatred. When the media repeats her accusations – with no evidence, no trial and no jury – we are moved backwards as a country and away from the America that our civil rights leaders sacrificed so much to create.”

Allred called the tactic “desperate.”

“It is ironic that a man who has chastised the black poor for making race an excuse would now have to lean upon that as part of his defense strategy,” said Georgetown University sociology professor Michael Eric Dyson, a black scholar and author of the book “Is Bill Cosby Right? Or Has the Black Middle Class Lost Its Mind?”

“If you’re more cynical, you might say, ‘What manipulation of racial rhetoric in defense of the indefensible,’” Dyson said Thursday….Read the rest here…

 

Is the Chumph Another Bill Cosby?

For decades neither the press, law enforcement, or the public believed the stories about Bill Cosby. Rich, famous, and seemingly with a sterling reputation, Cosby raped dozens of women…

And got away with it.

Now, not to confuse images here, the Chumph is a multimillionaire, is definitely famous, even if his reputation won’t stand up to scrutiny.The Chumph has also been the beneficiary of special laws for special people in America.

It is not certain yet, just as it wasn’t clear with Cosby for a long time, that the Chumph may be a rapist and a child molester.

Chumph and convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein

Why The New Child Rape Case Filed Against Donald Trump Should Not Be Ignored

An anonymous “Jane Doe” filed a federal lawsuit against GOP presumptive nominee Donald Trump last week, accusing him of raping her in 1994 when she was thirteen years old. The mainstream media ignored the filing.

If the Bill Cosby case has taught us anything, it is to not disregard rape cases against famous men. Serious journalists have publicly apologized for turning a blind eye to the Cosby accusers for over a decade, notwithstanding the large number of women who had come forward with credible claims. And now history is repeating itself.

In covering a story, a media outlet is not finding guilt. It is simply reporting the news that a lawsuit has been filed against Mr. Trump, and ideally putting the complaint in context. Unproven allegations are just that – unproven, and should be identified that way. (Mr. Trump’s lawyer says the charges are “categorically untrue, completely fabricated and politically motivated.”) Proof comes later, at trial. But the November election will come well before any trial. And while Mr. Trump is presumed innocent, we are permitted – no, we are obligated — to analyze the case’s viability now.

No outsider can say whether Mr. Trump is innocent or guilty of these new rape charges. But we can look at his record, analyze the court filings here, and make a determination as to credibility – whether the allegations are believable enough for us to take them seriously and investigate them, keeping in mind his denial and reporting new facts as they develop.

I have done that. And the answer is a clear “yes.” These allegations are credible. They ought not be ignored. Mainstream media, I’m looking at you.

1. Consider the Context: Mr. Trump’s Overt, Even Proud Misogyny

The rape case must be viewed through the lens of Mr. Trump’s current, longstanding and well documented contempt for women. Men who objectify women are more likely to become perpetrators of sexual violence, just as one with a long history of overtly racist comments is more likely to commit a hate crime.

Mr. Trump has relished calling women “dogs,” “slobs” and “pigs,” and cyberstalked and derided journalist Megyn Kelly for having the temerity to ask him to defend his own words. He threw out the most misogynist of attacks, attempting to undermine her professionalism by accusing her of menstruating. He’s cruelly ridiculed the appearance of a female opponent (Carly Fiorina) and an opponent’s wife (Heidi Cruz). His campaign even openly acknowledged that it disqualified all women for consideration as his vice-president.

Mr. Trump has a long history of debasing women he’s worked with, crossing the line on a regular basis. He’s taken lifelong joy in objectifying women, including hisproclamation: “Women, you have to treat ‘em like shit.”

This cannot be ignored. Decades of abusive language does not make him a rapist. But it does show us who the man is: a callous, meanspirited misogynist who no sane person would leave alone with her daughter. As Dr. Maya Angelou said, “When someone shows you who they really are, believe them.”

2. More context: two prior sexual assault court claims have been made against Mr. Trump

But Mr. Trump has been accused of worse than just misogynist language. Two prior women have accused Mr. Trump, in court documents, of actual or attempted sexual assault. (Mr. Trump denies all the allegations.)

Under oath, Ivana Trump accused Mr. Trump of a violent rape.

First was Ivana Trump, Donald Trump’s first wife, who said under oath in a 1989 deposition that he had violently attacked her, ripped out her hair and forcibly penetrated her without her consent. According to the Daily Beast, she claims he was wildly angry that she’d referred him to a cosmetic surgeon who had botched a “scalp reduction” job (to cover a bald spot) and caused pain in his scalp – hence the vindictive yanking on her hair. At the time Ms. Trump said she felt “violated” by the alleged “rape.”

A few years later, after their divorce was settled, Ms. Trump claimed that she did not mean the word “rape” in a “literal or criminal” sense.

Note: virtually every settlement of a case involving a high profile person paying money to a former spouse – or anyone – requires the person receiving the money to agree in writing to ironclad nondisparagement and confidentiality. In plain English: you promise to be quiet and not say anything bad about the party paying you money. This has been the case in hundreds of settlement agreements I have worked on over the years. Ms. Trump was almost certainly contractually prohibited after she signed from saying anything negative about Mr. Trump. And it is also common to attempt to “cure” prior negative statements with new agreed-to language – like, I didn’t mean it literally. (You didn’t mean forcible penetration literally?)

A business acquaintance accused Mr. Trump of sexual harassment and “attempted rape”.

A second woman accused Donald Trump of sexual assault, in 1997. According toThe Guardian, then thirty-four year old Jill Harth alleged in a federal lawsuit that Trump violated her “physical and mental integrity” when he touched her intimately without consent after her husband went into business with him, leaving her “emotionally devastated [and] distraught.” The lawsuit called the multiple acts “attempted rape.” Shortly thereafter she voluntarily withdrew the case when a parallel suit against Mr. Trump brought by her husband was settled. When The Guardian reached the woman in 2016 to ask whether she stood by her sexual assault allegations, she responded, “yes.”

In a court filing, according to a report, Ms. Harth alleged that while she and her husband were trying to do a business deal with Mr. Trump regarding a beauty pageant, he repeatedly propositioned her for sex and groped her, culminating in this frightening alleged incident:

Trump forcefully removed (Harth) from public areas of Mar-A-Lago in Florida and forced (her) into a bedroom belonging to defendant’s daughter Ivanka, wherein (Trump) forcibly kissed, fondled, and restrained (her) from leaving, against (her) will and despite her protests.” In the court document, she said that Trump bragged that he ”would be the best lover you ever have.”

Recently Donald Trump issued a statement that women’s claims of sexual harassment, documented in a lengthy New York Times investigation which included Ms. Harth’s lawsuit, were “made up.”

Jill Harth responded angrily on Twitter last week: “My part was true. I didn’t talk. As usual you opened your big mouth.”

In other words, she is standing by her story.

3. The new Jane Doe child rape claim against Mr. Trump is consistent with verifiable facts about Mr. Trump and his friend Jeffrey Epstein, and has a powerful witness statement attached to it.

A third woman accused Mr. Trump of rape very recently. According to the Daily Mail, a woman filed an April 2016 lawsuit claiming that when she was thirteen years old she was held as a sex slave to Mr. Trump and his friend Jeffrey Epstein. The woman claimed to have a witness, “Tiffany Doe,” to the incidents. She filed the casein pro per, that is, without the assistance of a lawyer.

The case was dismissed by the court for technical filing errors. She then obtained a lawyer and the case was modified and refiled in New York federal court, against Mr. Trump and Mr. Epstein.

I’ve carefully reviewed this federal complaint. It is now much stronger than the one she filed on her own, which makes sense because she now has an experienced litigator representing her. Jane Doe says that as a thirteen year old, she was enticed to attend parties at the home of Jeffrey Epstein with the promise of money modeling jobs. Mr. Epstein is a notorious  “billionaire pedophile” who is now a Level 3 registered sex offender – the most dangerous kind, “a threat to public safety” — after being convicted of misconduct with another underage girl.

Jane Doe says that Mr. Trump “initiated sexual contact” with her on four occasions in 1994. Since she was thirteen at the time, consent is not an issue. If Mr. Trump had any type sexual contact with her in 1994, it was a crime.

On the fourth incident, she says Mr. Trump tied her to a bed and forcibly raped her, in a “savage sexual attack,” while she pleaded with him to stop. She says Mr. Trump violently struck her in the face. She says that afterward, if she ever revealed what he had done, Mr. Trump threatened that she and her family would be “physically harmed if not killed.” She says she has been in fear of him ever since.

New York’s five year statute of limitations on this claim – the legal deadline for filing — has long since run. However, Jane Doe’s attorney, Thomas Meagher, argues in his court filing that because she was threatened by Mr. Trump, she has been under duress all this time, and therefore she should be permitted additional time to come forward. Legally, this is calling “tolling” – stopping the clock, allowing more time to file the case. As a result, the complaint alleges, Jane Doe did not have “freedom of will to institute suit earlier in time.” He cites two New York cases which I have read and which do support tolling

Two unusual documents are attached to Jane Doe’s complaints – sworn declarations attesting to the facts. The first is from Jane Doe herself, telling her horrific story, including the allegation that Jeffrey Epstein also raped her and threatened her into silence, and this stunner:

Defendant Epstein then attempted to strike me about the head with his closed fists while he angrily screamed at me that he, Defendant Epstein, should have been the one who took my virginity, not Defendant Trump . . .

And this one:

Defendant Trump stated that I shouldn’t ever say anything if I didn’t want to disappear like Maria, a 12-year-old female that was forced to be involved in the third incident with Defendant Trump and that I had not seen since that third incident, and that he was capable of having my whole family killed.

The second declaration is even more astonishing, because it is signed by “Tiffany Doe”, Mr. Epstein’s “party planner” from 1991-2000. Tiffany Doe says that her duties were “to get attractive adolescent women to attend these parties.” (Adolescents are, legally, children….Read More Here…

 

Bill Cosby Going to Trial

Damn! This is on heck of a long fall.

Pennsylvania judge decides Cosby sex assault case will go to trial

A Pennsylvania judge has decided that disgraced comedian Bill Cosby will go to trial for criminal sexual assault.

The judge reviewed testimony, excerpts of the comedian’s interview with police and other evidence from prosecutors.

Earlier, it was revealed in court that Andrea Constand told authorities that Cosby violated her sexually after giving her three pills that made her dizzy, blurry-eyed and nauseated and left her legs feeling “like jelly,” according to a police report read at the hearing on Tuesday.

“I told him, ‘I can’t even talk, Mr. Cosby.’ I started to panic,” the former Temple University athletic department employee told police in 2005.

The testimony was read at a preliminary hearing to determine whether prosecutors have enough evidence to put the 78-year-old TV star on trial on sexual assault charges that could bring 10 years in prison.

It was not the face-to-face confrontation between accuser and accused that some had anticipated: Constand was not in the courtroom, and the judge ruled that she would not have to testify at the hearing and that prosecutors could instead have her statements to police read into the record.

Cosby’s lawyers argued unsuccessfully that that would be hearsay and would deprive him of his right to confront his accuser. Such testimony from law enforcement officers is common practice at preliminary hearings in Pennsylvania, which have a far lower burden of proof than trials.

 

Eddie Griffin on Bill Cosby

Eddie Griffin on Bill Cosby…Controversial.

Another view on Bill Cosby by a Youtube voice, “the black authority”. His defense of Cosby ties it to the failure of the justice system to convict police who have murdered unarmed black people…

 

Bill Cosby Charged With Rape

It is not like you couldn’t see this coming after the Cosby lawsuit last week against his accusers.

Bill Cosby charged with sexually assaulting Pennsylvania woman in 2004

For the first time, Bill Cosby will face criminal charges in connection with an accusation of sexual assault, Montgomery County prosecutors in Pennsylvania announced on Wednesday.

Prosecutors charged Cosby with aggravated indecent assault, a felony, First Assistant District Attorney Kevin Steele said in a morning press conference. The single charge stems from an alleged sexual assault in early 2004.

“Today, after examination of all the evidence, we are able to seek justice on behalf of the victim,” Steele said. The charges were filed thanks to new information uncovered in July, Steele said, noting that the incident remains within the 12-year statute of limitations.

The felony charge came at the conclusion of a second investigation into allegations that the comedian drugged and assaulted former Temple University employee Andrea Constand 12 years ago.  Constand first accused Cosby of assaulting her in 2005. At the time, prosecutors declined to press charges.

On the evening in question, Mr. Cosby urged her to take pills that he provided her and to drink wine, the effect of which rendered her unable to move,” Steele said to reporters, later saying the pills rendered the victim “frozen,” and  “paralyzed.” That was when Cosby allegedly committed aggravated indecent assault, the first degree felony for which he was charged on Wednesday…

 

Cosby Accused of Molesting a Minor

There just doesn’t seem to be any bottom to the well of women Cosby raped…

For the first time, he is being accused of raping a minor.

Bill Cosby Not Indicted on Charges of Sexually Assaulting a Minor Due to Statute of Limitations

Bill Cosby will not be indicted on charges of sexually assaulting a minor 40 years ago.

Los Angeles prosecutors made the announcement Tuesday, over one week after Judy Huth came forward to allege that Cosby sexually assaulted her when she was only 16 years old in 1974. Initially, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said his detectives would investigate no matter the timeframe that had passed.

“We don’t turn people away because things are out of statute. You come to us, especially with a sexual allegation, we will work with you,” Beck said in a Los Angeles Times report last week. “We address these things seriously, and it’s not just because it’s Mr. Cosby.”

However, the district attorney insisted that far too much time had passed since the statute of limitations of the alleged incident was three years.

“Therefore, prosecution today for any potential felony sex crime from 1974 would also be barred,” the D.A. said in a court document.

Still, Cosby is facing other lawsuits. The 77-year-old comedian who became popular in the 1980s and 1990s family sitcom “The Cosby Show,” has recently been the subject of media scrutiny due to the rising number of allegations brought against him. Lately, a number of women have come forth alleging that Cosby sexually assaulted them years ago.

 

Damon Wayans Steps in It…Big Time

Not sure why Wayans wanted to go there…Talk about a “career limiting” conversation.

Damon Wayans Defends Bill Cosby, Calls Accusers ‘Un-Rapeable’

The actor also called the women who’ve come forward “b**ches.”

Damon Wayans is the latest celebrity to jump to the defense of Bill Cosby.

The actor appeared on Power 105.1’s “The Breakfast Club” radio show on Friday, where he said that he doesn’t think Cosby is a rapist. Wayans went on to explain his theory about the 51 women who’ve come forward with their stories of being drugged or sexually assaulted by the comedian.

First, he provided a little bit of advice.

“Tell the truth. If I was him, I would divorce my wife — wink, wink — give her all my money, and then I would go to a deposition. I’d light one of them three-hour cigars, I’d have me some wine and maybe a Quaalude. And I would just go off,” he said.

“I don’t believe that he was raping, I think he was in relationships with all of them,” Wayans continued. “And then he was like, ‘You know what, it’s ’78. It don’t work no more. I can’t get it up for any of y’all. Bye, bitches. And now they’re like, ‘Oh really? Rape!’”

Wayans also questioned why the accusers waited so long to come forward, but co-host Angela Yee was quick to point out that some women came out with their claims decades ago.

“But if you listen to them talk, they go, ‘Well, the first time…’ The first time? Bitch, how many times did it happen? Just listen to what they’re saying,” Wayans responded. “And some of them, really, is un-rapeable. I look at them and go, ‘No, he don’t want that. Get outta here!’”

Attempting to make his words sound less offensive, Wayans then added that his “heart goes out” to the women who were actually assaulted, insinuating that not all the women who’ve come forward are telling the truth.

“For anybody who was raped by Bill Cosby, I’m sorry and I hope you get justice,” he said, only to then call out “all the other bitches” who just didn’t take responsibility for their actions.

 

Jill Scott Drops Cosby Like a Hot Potato

Jill Scott had been one of Bill Cosby’s biggest defenders along with Whoopi Goldberg. Yesterdays revelation that Cosby admitted in a Court Deposition buying drugs to give to women so he could have sex with them blew all of that away. There is now no doubt left as to Bill Cosby’s guilt, which is a true tragedy because of the many things he has accomplished.

Bill Cosby Admitted To Drugging Women In 2005 Deposition

Bill Cosby admitted in 2005 that he secured quaaludes with the intent of giving them to young women he wanted to have sex with and that he gave the sedative to at least one woman and other people, according to documents obtained Monday by The Associated Press.

Cosby’s lawyers insisted that two of the accusers knew they were taking quaaludes from the comedian, according to the unsealed 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: that he drugged and raped women.

The AP had gone to court to compel the release of a deposition in a sexual-abuse case filed by former Temple University employee Andrea Constand, the first of a cascade of lawsuits against him that have severely damaged his good-guy image.

Cosby’s lawyers had objected to the release of the material, arguing it would embarrass him. Ultimately, a judge unsealed just a small portion 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, with his oft-espoused views on topics including childrearing, family life, education and crime, “has voluntarily narrowed the zone of privacy that he is entitled to claim,” the judge wrote.

As Shorty Long said in “Here Comes the Judge”… “Man Guilty!”

Jill Scott no longer supports Bill Cosby, ‘completely disgusted’

Singer Jill Scott, who defended Bill Cosby despite countless allegations that he drugged and sexually assaulted women, says she no longer stands by the comedian.

On Monday, Scott tweeted that she defended Cosby because there was no concrete evidence against him. She said after reading newly released court documents, she can no longer support the comedian.

“About Bill Cosby. Sadly his testimony offers proof of terrible deeds, which is all I have ever required believing the accusations,” Scott said in a tweet.

 

Another Bill COsby Accuser Come Out!

Yet another woman has come out publically about Bill Cosby raping her…

Damn! There goes America’s hero…

Janice Dickinson details Bill Cosby sexual assault accusations: He raped me

Bill Cosby’s legacy in limbo as NBC cancels project amid mounting sex assault allegations

The avalanche of sexual assault claims coming at comedian Bill Cosby in recent weeks may have ended his career.

Both NBC and Netflix have scrapped projects with the 77-year-old icon after long-forgotten rape claims from more than a dozen women were brought back into the light by comedian Hannibal Buress.

The network had previously announced a sitcom starring Cosby would debut next year but said Wednesday the project, which had not yet been named, was to feature him in a family setting similar to the wildly successful “Cosby Show.”

The cancellation came one day after Netflix announced it was postponing the launch of a Cosby standup comedy special. It was set to debut on Black Friday.

Both blows may prove to be fatal to the aging icon’s showbiz career. He is not known to have had any further projects on the table.

At least 14 women claim Cosby sexually assaulted them in claims dating back to 1969, an attack detailed Sunday in an op-ed in which Joan Tarshis claims she was drugged and raped when she was only 19-years-old.

The most recent accusations came from model Janice Dickinson, who explained during an “Entertainment Tonight” interview aired Tuesday that Cosby assaulted her in 1982.

Now 59-years-old, Dickinson’s timeline of events paralleled many of the other claims.

Dinner, drinks, then waking up dazed the next morning in different clothes than were worn the day before.

“The next morning I woke up, and I wasn’t wearing my pajamas, and I remember before I passed out thinking that I had been sexually assaulted by this man,” she told ET.

“Before I woke up in the morning, the last thing I remember was Bill Cosby in a patchwork robe, dropping his robe and getting on top of me,” she continued. “And I remember a lot of pain. The next morning I remember waking up with my pajamas off and there was semen in between my legs.”

A Cosby attorney called Dickinson a liar in a Wednesday morning statement. Previous claims were also shot down by spokespersons or lawyers.

A dozen other women have made similar claims against the legendary television and stage star after Buress brought attention back to Cosby’s sordid past during an October appearance at a Philadelphia standup club.

“You rape women, Bill Cosby,” Buress told a wide-eyed crowd. “You’re rapist.”

All I can say is “Why?” Over a dozen women are all saying the same thing…

 

Bill Cosby…Comedian, Actor, Philanthropist…Rapist?

Through the years, there have been 15 women who have accused Bill Cosby of rape…

Now, one of the women is speaking out publicly. Her testimony is pretty damning, in that she has never accepted a penny from Cosby, and doesn’t stand to make any money now.

Bill Cosby Accuser Details Alleged Rape

In 2004, when Andrea Constand filed a lawsuit against Bill Cosby for sexual assault, her lawyers asked me to testify. Cosby had drugged and raped me, too, I told them. The lawyers said I could testify anonymously as a Jane Doe, but I ardently rejected that idea. My name is not Jane Doe. My name is Barbara Bowman, and I wanted to tell my story in court. In the end, I didn’t have the opportunity to do that, because Cosby settled the suitfor an undisclosed amount of money.

Over the years, I’ve struggled to get people to take my story seriously. So last month, when reporter Lycia Naff contacted me for an interview for the Daily Mail, I gave her a detailed account. I told her how Cosby won my trust as a 17-year-old aspiring actress in 1985, brainwashed me into viewing him as a father figure, and then assaulted me multiple times. In one case, I blacked out after having dinner and one glass of wine at his New York City brownstone, where he had offered to mentor me and discuss the entertainment industry. When I came to, I was in my panties and a man’s t-shirt, and Cosby was looming over me. I’m certain now that he drugged and raped me. But as a teenager, I tried to convince myself I had imagined it. I even tried to rationalize it: Bill Cosby was going to make me a star and this was part of the deal. The final incident was in Atlantic City, where we had traveled for an industry event. I was staying in a separate bedroom of Cosby’s hotel suite, but he pinned me down in his own bed while I screamed for help. I’ll never forget the clinking of his belt buckle as he struggled to pull his pants off. I furiously tried to wrestle from his grasp until he eventually gave up, angrily called me “a baby” and sent me home to Denver.

Back then, the incident was so horrifying that I had trouble admitting it to myself, let alone to others. But I first told my agent, who did nothing. (Cosby sometimes came to her office to interview people for “The Cosby Show” and other acting jobs.) A girlfriend took me to a lawyer, but he accused me of making the story up. Their dismissive responses crushed any hope I had of getting help; I was convinced no one would listen to me. That feeling of futility is what ultimately kept me from going to the police. I told friends what had happened, and although they sympathized with me, they were just as helpless to do anything about it. I was a teenager from Denver acting in McDonald’s commercials. He was Bill Cosby: consummate American dad Cliff Huxtable and the Jell-O spokesman. Eventually, I had to move on with my life and my career.

I didn’t stay entirely quiet, though: I’ve been telling my story publicly for nearly 10 years. When Constand brought her lawsuit, I found renewed confidence. I was determined to not be silent any more. In 2006, I was interviewed by Robert Huber for Philadelphia Magazine, and Alycia Lane for KYW-TV news in Philadelphia. A reporter wrote about my experience in the December 2006 issue of People Magazine. And last February, Katie Baker interviewed me for Newsweek. Bloggers and columnists wrote about that story for several months after it was published. Still, my complaint didn’t seem to take hold.

While I am grateful for the new attention to Cosby’s crimes, I must ask my own questions: Why wasn’t I believed? Why didn’t I get the same reaction of shock and revulsion when I originally reported it? Why was I, a victim of sexual assault, further wronged by victim blaming when I came forward? The women victimized by Bill Cosby have been talking about his crimes for more than a decade. Why didn’t our stories go viral?

Unfortunately, our experience isn’t unique. The entertainment world is rife with famous men who use their power to victimize and then silence young women who look up to them. Even when their victims speak out, the industry and the public turn blind eyes; these men’s celebrity, careers, and public adulation continue to thrive. Even now, Cosby has a new comedy special coming out on Netflix and NBC is set to give him a new sitcom.

Fixing this problem demands more than public shaming. For Cosby to commit these assaults against multiple victims over several years, there had to be a network of willfully blind wallflowers at best, or people willing to aid him in committing these sexual crimes at worst. As I told the Daily Mail, when I was a teenager, his assistants transported me to hotels and events to meet him. When I blacked out at Cosby’s home, there were several staffers with us. My agent, who introduced me to Cosby, had me take a pregnancy test when I returned from my last trip with him. Talent agents, hotel staff, personal assistants and others who knowingly made arrangements for Cosby’s criminal acts or overlooked them should be held equally accountable….(…more…)

And –  Bill Cosby Accuser Details Alleged Rape: ‘I Wonder How He Sleeps At Night’

 

Bill Cosby…Again

Not sure how Bill got conned into appearing on Don Lemon’s show (senility?), but here he is. The first clip is about the 50th anniversary of the Birmingham Church Bombing. And on a day like today, where we suffered through yet another of the seemingly weekly mass murders by gun at the Navy Yard in Washington DC – It’s a good time to reflect…

Now the second clip is the Cosby of a few years ago. The money line for conservatives to misinterpret what is saying is “No-groes” which he spouts at the 5 minute mark.

Now, Cosby makes a very good point about the juvenile incarceration system in this country – and it’s systemic failure.You can bet that isn’t what is going to be quoted…

 

 

Bill Cosby and Ben’s Chili Bowl

Most major cities have a business or meeting place that becomes an “institution”. In Washington, DC that institution is Ben’s Chili Bowl. Philly and Cheese Steak. Boston and Clam Chowder…You are not a Washingtonian until you have consumed at least one of Ben’s famous chili half-smokes. Ben’s clientele crosses all color and ethnic lines, political lines, and economic status. Used to be two places in DC where the rich and powerful rubbed shoulders with the common folks – the old RFK Stadium during a Redskins game and Ben’s. The Redskins have moved to new, more egalitarian digs…But Ben’s continues…

Ben’s turned 55 year old this week, and some big names, including President Obama, Rev Jesse Jackson, and Bill Cosby turned out to grab a bite and celebrate.

 

US Attorney General Eric Holder – Goes Cosby

Holder Calls On Black Fathers To Take Responsibility

AG Eric Holder

Attorney General Eric Holder called on absentee black fathers yesterday to take an active role in their children’s lives, Newsday reported today.

Holder, a Queens native and the first black Attorney General, urged the 400 worshippers at the Memorial Presbyterian Church on Baldwin Turnpike in Queens, N.Y., to orchestrate a “spiritual awakening,” according to the New York newspaper. The Attorney General said a father’s involvement in a family can help combat poverty and crime in black neighborhoods, according to Newsday.

“Too many men in the black community have created children and left them to be raised by caring mothers. These women do a wonderful job, but we ask too much of them and too little of our men,” Holder told the congregation, which included members of his family, according to Newsday. “It should simply be unacceptable for a man to have a child and then not play an integral part in the raising and nurturing of the child.”

Holder’s comments hearken back to comedian Bill Cosby’s speech before the NAACP in 2004, in which he sparked a national debate by urging African-American fathers to take responsibility for their children. And on Father’s Day 2008, then-presidential candidate Barack Obama gave a speech in whcih he said “too many fathers” are “missing from too many lives and too many homes.”

ttorney General Eric Holder called on absentee black fathers yesterday to take an active role in their children’s lives, Newsday reported today.Holder, a Queens native and the first black Attorney General, urged the 400 worshippers at the Memorial Presbyterian Church on Baldwin Turnpike in Queens, N.Y., to orchestrate a “spiritual awakening,” according to the New York newspaper. The Attorney General said a father’s involvement in a family can help combat poverty and crime in black neighborhoods, according to Newsday.

 

Ben Jealous: Personal Responsibility Alone Won’t Fix Structural Inequalities

ColorLines is a national news magazine on race an politics, which is published bi-monthly. An Internet version is available here with some of the content, and there also is a blog, Racewire.

This opinion piece originally published in the Grio (link below) looks at the issue of social uplift, frequently defined by black conservatives as “black folks doing bad”. Bill Cosby of course, has been frequently cited by conservatives for his statement regarding that segment of the black population which doesn’t seem to be able to get traction to move into the middle class. Justifiably, Cosby defines some of those reasons as attitudes, and a twisted cultural norm which devalues success outside of a very limited scope of questionable activities.

Jealous isn’t saying that isn’t true – but he is making a clear point that a number of other things are true as well.

Benjamin Todd Jealous

Ben Jealous: Personal Responsibility Alone Won’t Fix Structural Inequalities

by Ben Jealous, President and CEO of the NAACP.
Originally published at theGrio.com.

Over the weekend I had the opportunity to share the stage with America’s legendary television dad, Bill Cosby. In a town hall forum titled “About Our Children,” Cosby and I, along with comedian Paul Rodriguez and University of Wisconsin Professor Maria Cancian, discussed poverty, parenting and the American dream in front of a national audience, broadcast live on MSNBC.