Bill Cosby stands accused of drugging and molesting former Temple University basketball administrator Andrea Constand in his Cheltenham, Philadelphia home in 2004
Bill Cosby
Bill Cosby's defense lawyers, while delivering their closing statements on Tuesday, launched an attack on the main accuser and the five additional women accusers who took the stand against him. Cosby stands accused of drugging and molesting former Temple University basketball administrator Andrea Constand in his Cheltenham, Philadelphia home in 2004.
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Lawyers Tom Mesereau and Kathleen Bliss insisted that Constand had consented to a sexual encounter at the star's home, then levelled false accusations against him for a big payday, Page Six reported. 'This woman will say anything, she will absolutely say anything,' Mesereau later said of Constand. 'She's a pathological liar.'
The statement came after Mesereau reminded jurors that some 202 calls were made between Constand and Cosby during the more than two years they knew each other. Directly addressing the #MeToo movement, Mesereau further asked the jury to 'stand up against the rumor, gossip and shallowness' of that heated atmosphere. Bliss implored the jury to look beyond the testimony of other fellow accusers Heidi Thomas, Chelan Lasha, Janice Baker-Kinney and Maude Lise-Lotte Lublin, who described feeling embarrassed, scared or confused following the alleged assaults.
'We are not snowflakes. We are not delicate flowers,' the attorney told jurors. 'As women, we don't abandon facts or science, or truth. As men and women we reject gossip, and speculation, and false promises.' The lawyers also urged the jury to acquit the 80-year-old of sexual assault charges they said were based on 'flimsy, silly, ridiculous evidence'.
'Acquit, acquit Mr Cosby,' Bliss pleaded. 'You're about to make one of the most important decisions you will have ever made in your lives. You will decide the fate of Mr Cosby.' Talking about Thomas, the first accuser to testify, Bliss said that she was 'a lovely woman, Ms Littleton. She wanted to be a star, and she's living the dream now.'
Bliss called accuser Janice Baker-Kinney 'a child of the '70s and '80s' who consensually slept with Cosby. 'His being married never entered her mind,' Bliss said. 'Where is her morality? Seriously ladies and gentlemen, where are her values?' Bliss referred to famed supermodel Janice Dickinson as 'a failed starlet, an aged-out model.'
'It sounds as though she slept with every single man on the planet and when she flies hours and hours and hours from Bali to hook up with Mr Cosby, demanding first class by the way, he's not interested,' she said. 'So she goes to her room and boozes it up and does quaaludes. This is a woman who has to do a paternity test with Sylvester Stallone and some other guy. You know, Rocky's just a contender. Is Ms Dickinson really the moral beacon that women's movements want?'
Bliss described Constand as being untrustworthy, particularly compared to Temple employee Marguerite Jackson. Jackson took the stand last week to testify that Constand told her in a Rhode Island hotel room that she could fabricate a claim of sexual assault against a celebrity to 'get that money.' However, Constand refuted the claims, saying she barely knew Jackson and never roomed with her or anyone.
'The Cosby Show' star, who is charged with three counts of aggravated indecent assault, has pleaded not guilty and contends the sexual encounter with Constand was consensual. Each count carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. Constand is one of many women who have accused Cosby of drugging and then assaulting them.
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