According to American media reports, American comedian Bill Cosby faces another trial this week, focusing on charges of “raping” a teenage girl in the mid-1970s.
Cosby, the 84-year-old TV celebrity, was charged in a civil lawsuit with “raping” Judy Hawth at the Playboy mansion in Los Angeles when she was 16 or 17 years old.
A Cosby spokesman told the New York Post that the jury is expected to begin hearing in the Los Angeles Supreme Court on Tuesday and is expected to take a week.
Newsweek said Cosby, who suffers from a degree of blindness in his eyes, will not appear in court for the trial, which is expected to begin on June 1.
According to the newspaper, Houth said the alleged incident occurred in 1975.
After reviewing the timeline, his initial claim that he had been assaulted in 1974. The change of date led the Cosby team to finally begin an unsuccessful attempt to drop the case.
“This is a trial for the assassination of Mr. Cosby’s heir,” Newsweek quoted one of them as saying, adding that Cosby, who denies the allegations, “will be acquitted.” .
In the lawsuit, which has been plagued by delays since its filing in 2014, Houth claimed he met with Cosby while filming a movie in Lacey Park in San Marino, California.
According to the lawsuit, Cosby and his young friend asked him their age during the interview. He then invited them to the Playboy mansion a few days later.
The petition alleges that Cosby told them to tell them if they were 19 years old.
When Houth was in the mansion, he initially complained that Cosby had harassed him by putting his hand on his pants and then holding his hand to perform a sexual act without his consent.
Representatives of Playboy Enterprises, the organization known for its adult magazine, said no current employee could discuss how to register visitors in the 1970s.
Cosby claimed that there was no evidence of Hawth’s presence in the Playboy mansion.
The trial comes after Cosby was convicted in 2018 of drug use and rape by Temple University sporting director Andrea Konstand in 2004.
In June 2021, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned the sentence and released the star from prison after serving nearly three to three years.
Cosby’s conviction was overturned when the Pennsylvania Supreme Court heard a civil lawsuit in 2005 in which Montgomery District Attorney Bruce Castor told Cosby he would not be prosecuted for attacking Constance if he testified. .
Cosby agreed and admitted to giving drugs to Constand and other women before having sex. Cosby paid $ 3.38 million in damages and the plaintiff said he would not plead guilty.
However, the Montgomery District Attorney, who replaced Castor, overturned his decision not to prosecute.
The state Supreme Court ruled that Cosby’s rights had been violated, overturned his sentence on June 30, 2021, and released him later that day.
Prosecutors appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court in November 2021, arguing that Cosby was not granted immunity.
The Supreme Court ruled in March that it would not consider a case that could have reversed Cosby’s conviction for rape.
Nearly 60 other women have accused Cosby of raping during more than 50 years of her career.
While he has faced other lawsuits in the past, the Pennsylvania criminal case was important in that it led to Cosby’s conviction.
Source: Lebanon Debate
