Cosby paid accuser $3.4M in 2006 settlement, prosecutor says
NORRISTOWN, Pa. — Bill Cosby paid nearly $3.4 million more than a decade ago in a settlement with the woman he is now charged with sexually assaulting, a prosecutor said Monday as the comedian’s retrial got underway.
District Attorney Kevin Steele highlighted the 2006 civil settlement during his opening statement, suggesting that Cosby wouldn’t have paid out so much money if the accusations against him were false.
The amount Cosby paid to accuser Andrea Constand had been confidential, but a judge ruled that both sides could discuss it at the trial.
Cosby, 80, is charged with drugging and molesting Constand, a former employee of Temple University’s basketball program, at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004. Constand says he gave her pills that made her woozy, then penetrated her with his fingers as she lay incapacitated, unable to tell him to stop.
Cosby says the encounter was consensual, and his lawyers have signaled they intend to attack Constand as a liar who set up Cosby in hope of landing a big payday from the former TV star.
Cosby’s first trial last spring ended with the jury hopelessly deadlocked. The comedian faces three counts of aggravated indecent assault, each punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Ahead of opening statements, a topless protester who appeared on several episodes of “The Cosby Show” as a child jumped a barricade and got within a few feet of Cosby as the comedian entered the suburban Philadelphia courthouse.
The woman, whose body was scrawled with the names of more than 50 Cosby accusers as well as the words “Women’s Lives Matter,” ran in front of Cosby toward a bank of TV cameras but was intercepted by sheriff’s deputies and led away in handcuffs. Cosby seemed startled by the commotion as a half-dozen protesters chanted at him.
The protester, Nicolle Rochelle, 39, of Little Falls, New Jersey, was charged with disorderly conduct and released.
“The main goal was to make Cosby uncomfortable because that is exactly what he has been doing for decades to women,” she said afterward.
Rochelle, an actress, said she didn’t have any bad experiences with Cosby when she was on the show, nor did she intend to physically hurt him. She is a member of the European feminist group Femen, which is known for staging topless protests around the world.
Cosby spokesman Andrew Wyatt praised deputies for their quick action but urged court officials to increase security.
“It’s a different world. Things have changed,” Wyatt told The Associated Press, referring to recent mass shootings and other episodes. “You never know who’s going to want to make a name for themselves.”
Opening statements were delayed for several hours while the judge sorted through allegations raised late Friday that a juror told a woman during jury selection that he thought Cosby was guilty. Cosby’s lawyers wanted the juror removed from the case.
After questioning all 12 jurors and six alternates behind closed doors, Judge Steven O’Neill ruled the juror could stay, saying all of the jurors told him they stuck to their pledge to remain fair and impartial.
Prosecutors this time have lined up a parade of five additional accusers to make the case that the man revered as “America’s Dad” lived a double life as one of Hollywood’s biggest predators. Only one additional accuser took the stand at the first trial.
Cosby lawyer Tom Mesereau, who won an acquittal in Michael Jackson’s 2005 child molestation case, has said the jury will instead learn “just how greedy” Constand was.
The retrial is taking place in a potentially more hostile environment for Cosby. The #MeToo movement caught fire four months after the first trial, raising awareness of sexual misconduct as it toppled Harvey Weinstein, Sen. Al Franken, Matt Lauer and other powerful men.
The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they grant permission, which Constand and Dickinson have done.
Associated Press writer Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this story.
