LOS ANGELES: Comedian Bill Cosby faces the latest court hearing this week in his sexual assault case in Pennsylvania, but his attorneys will again try to shift attention to his accuser.
Lawyers for the 78-year-old entertainer are set to ask a judge to throw out the charges leveled by Andrea Constand, who says Cosby drugged and assaulted her at his Philadelphia-area home in 2004.
If the Cosby case proceeds to trial, US media attention will focus once more on the debate over the justice system’s handling of sexual assault cases. The issue was most recently spotlighted in June when there was a national outcry after a judge gave a former Stanford University swimmer a six-month sentence for sexual assault.
Cosby’s defense team has made it clear their trial strategy will be to discredit Constand’s account. On Thursday, his lawyers will argue Constand should have been required to testify at a preliminary hearing in May and face cross-examination.
Accusations of sexual assault from dozens of women have knocked Cosby off his longtime pedestal as one of the most beloved US entertainers. Still, most of the cases are too old to be prosecuted. Constand’s allegations have led to the only criminal charges against Cosby, who has denied ever assaulting anyone and portrayed their encounter as consensual.
Cosby’s lawyer, Brian McMonagle, has argued that Constand should have been forced to show up at the May hearing to explain why she waited a year to make her complaint, why she could not recall certain details and why she stayed in touch with Cosby even after the alleged attack.
Experts in sexual trauma say victims often display behavior that appears on the surface to be inconsistent with assault.
“Society still has this expectation that rape victims will behave in one particular way, and we know that victims don’t behave that way,” said Jennifer Long, a former Pennsylvania prosecutor whose nonprofit AEquitas advises prosecutors on sexual assault cases.
Last month, a California judge sparked a national outcry when he sentenced a former Stanford student, Brock Turner, to six months in prison for sexually assaulting a woman. Prosecutors had sought a six-year sentence.
At the sentencing, the victim read a lengthy statement excoriating Turner and asserting she had been victimized again at the trial when his lawyer questioned her story, her sexual history and her behavior. BuzzFeed published the letter and it went viral, garnering millions of views.
Lawyers for the 78-year-old entertainer are set to ask a judge to throw out the charges leveled by Andrea Constand, who says Cosby drugged and assaulted her at his Philadelphia-area home in 2004.
If the Cosby case proceeds to trial, US media attention will focus once more on the debate over the justice system’s handling of sexual assault cases. The issue was most recently spotlighted in June when there was a national outcry after a judge gave a former Stanford University swimmer a six-month sentence for sexual assault.
Cosby’s defense team has made it clear their trial strategy will be to discredit Constand’s account. On Thursday, his lawyers will argue Constand should have been required to testify at a preliminary hearing in May and face cross-examination.
Accusations of sexual assault from dozens of women have knocked Cosby off his longtime pedestal as one of the most beloved US entertainers. Still, most of the cases are too old to be prosecuted. Constand’s allegations have led to the only criminal charges against Cosby, who has denied ever assaulting anyone and portrayed their encounter as consensual.
Cosby’s lawyer, Brian McMonagle, has argued that Constand should have been forced to show up at the May hearing to explain why she waited a year to make her complaint, why she could not recall certain details and why she stayed in touch with Cosby even after the alleged attack.
Experts in sexual trauma say victims often display behavior that appears on the surface to be inconsistent with assault.
“Society still has this expectation that rape victims will behave in one particular way, and we know that victims don’t behave that way,” said Jennifer Long, a former Pennsylvania prosecutor whose nonprofit AEquitas advises prosecutors on sexual assault cases.
Last month, a California judge sparked a national outcry when he sentenced a former Stanford student, Brock Turner, to six months in prison for sexually assaulting a woman. Prosecutors had sought a six-year sentence.
At the sentencing, the victim read a lengthy statement excoriating Turner and asserting she had been victimized again at the trial when his lawyer questioned her story, her sexual history and her behavior. BuzzFeed published the letter and it went viral, garnering millions of views.
