Bill Cosby to be released from prison as judge overturns sexual assault conviction
By Sasha Savitsky | Fox News
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Bill Cosby’s sex assault conviction was overturned by Pennsylvania’s highest court.
The court said Wednesday that they found an agreement with a previous prosecutor that prevented him from being charged in the case.
The disgraced actor has served more than two years of a three- to 10-year sentence at a state prison near Philadelphia. He had vowed to serve all 10 years rather than acknowledge any remorse over the 2004 encounter with accuser Andrea Constand.
Cosby, 83, who was once beloved as "America’s Dad," was convicted of drugging and molesting the Temple University employee at his suburban estate.
The former "Cosby Show" star was charged in late 2015, when a prosecutor armed with newly unsealed evidence — Cosby’s damaging deposition from her lawsuit — arrested him days before the 12-year statute of limitations expired.
The trial judge had allowed just one other accuser to testify at Cosby’s first trial, when the jury deadlocked. However, he then allowed five other accusers to testify at the retrial about their experiences with Cosby in the 1980s.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court said that testimony tainted the trial, even though a lower appeals court had found it appropriate to show a signature pattern of drugging and molesting women.
Cosby was the first celebrity tried and convicted in the #MeToo era, so the reversal could make prosecutors wary of calling other accusers in similar cases. The law on prior bad act testimony varies by state, though, and the ruling only holds sway in Pennsylvania.
Prosecutors did not immediately say if they would appeal or seek to try Cosby for a third time.
The justices voiced concern not just about sex assault cases, but what they saw as the judiciary’s increasing tendency to allow testimony that crosses the line into character attacks. The law allows the testimony only in limited cases, including to show a crime pattern so specific it serves to identify the perpetrator.
In New York, the judge presiding over last year’s trial of movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, whose case had sparked the explosion of the #MeToo movement in 2017, let four other accusers testify. Weinstein was convicted and sentenced to 23 years in prison. He is now facing separate charges in California.
In Cosby’s case, one of his appellate lawyers said prosecutors put on vague evidence about the uncharged conduct, including Cosby’s own recollections in his deposition about giving women alcohol or quaaludes before sexual encounters.
"The presumption of innocence just didn’t exist for him," Jennifer Bonjean, the lawyer, argued to the court in December.
In May, Cosby was denied paroled after refusing to participate in sex offender programs during his nearly three years in state prison. He has long said he would resist the treatment programs and refuse to acknowledge wrongdoing even if it means serving the full 10-year sentence.
This is the first year he was eligible for parole under the three- to 10-year sentence handed down after his 2018 conviction.
Cosby spokesperson Andrew Wyatt called the parole board decision "appalling."
Prosecutors said Cosby repeatedly used his fame and "family man" persona to manipulate young women, holding himself out as a mentor before betraying them.
Cosby, a groundbreaking Black actor who grew up in public housing in Philadelphia, made a fortune estimated at $400 million during his 50 years in the entertainment industry. His trademark clean comedy and homespun wisdom fueled popular TV shows, books and standup acts.
He fell from favor in his later years as he lectured the Black community about family values, but was attempting a comeback when he was arrested.
"There was a built-in level of trust because of his status in the entertainment industry and because he held himself out as a public moralist," Assistant District Attorney Adrienne Jappe, of suburban Montgomery County, argued to the justices.
Cosby had invited Constand to an estate he owns in Pennsylvania the night she said he drugged and sexually assaulted her.
Constand, a former professional basketball player who worked at his alma mater, went to police a year later. The other accusers knew Cosby through the entertainment industry and did not go to police.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
‘Mob Justice’: Geraldo Rivera Defends Cosby Release, Predicts Harvey Weinstein Might Catch A Break Too
VIRGINIA KRUTA - The Daily Caller
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Fox News’ Geraldo Rivera said Wednesday that he was not surprised to see comedian Bill Cosby’s sexual assault conviction overturned.
Noting that he had predicted exactly that in 2018, Rivera also suggested that Cosby’s case would likely be cited when defense attorneys looked at the possibility of overturning the conviction of disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein.
Rivera explained the reason for his statement in a tweet earlier in the day, saying, “Told you so on #BillCosby. He was convicted by a court so tainted by public opinion and social pressure that it allowed obviously prejudicial evidence and improper witnesses. He may be a bad guy, but in this case he was railroaded by the mob.”
“Cosby served two years on a case that a previous prosecutor promised would never be brought. And to allow the testimony of five other accusers was-legally speaking-outrageous,” Rivera continued in a second tweet. “And if you’re pissed off now, wait until the Appeals Court in NY reverses #HarveyWeinstein’s conviction.”
Rivera repeated his position during an interview with “America Reports” anchor John Roberts and guest anchor Shannon Bream, reading back some of what he written about the case in 2018.
“By most or all accounts, Bill Cosby was a sexual predator who left a trail of human misery and despair. He was sentenced to 3-10 in the state pen, he had it coming,” Rivera said. But then he went on to warn that the judge had allowed testimony that he believed was out of bounds and likely grounds for an appeal or for the entire case to be overturned.
Rivera also noted that Cosby had been prosecuted even after making a deal for his own testimony in a civil case that was supposed to prevent such prosecution.
“How is he going to get back the two years that he has lost now? This never should have happened,” he added.
“You say ‘how is he going to get back the two years that he has lost while being in prison?’ How will the 58 women who say he did to them what they say he did ever get back any sense of justice here, and any sense of ever being whole again?” Roberts pushed back.
Rivera said his heart went out to the victims and he was sorry that they were not getting the kind of closure they might have wanted. “But that’s not the way the criminal justice system works,” he added, arguing that in Cosby’s case they had brought in witnesses who were unrelated to the victim and used them to “embellish” the case “in a way that was wrongful.”
“I’ll tell you something else in my opinion. This will be reflected in Harvey Weinstein’s appeal as well,” Rivera continued. “Bill Cosby, I tell you, you can spit on him, do all you want, but he was unjustly convicted in my opinion.”