Defense attorneys claim women’s memories are tainted, want them barred from testifying
By Michael R. Sisak
Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Prosecutors this week asked a judge to let jurors at Bill Cosby’s spring retrial hear from 19 other accusers.
They want to show that even though he is charged with drugging and sexually assaulting one woman at his home near Philadelphia, it was part of a pattern over five decades. The women are among about 60 women who came forward to accuse Cosby of drugging and molesting them.
At Cosby’s first trial, which ended in a deadlock, prosecutors had tried to call 13 other accusers to testify. The judge allowed only one to take the stand.
On Thursday, they renewed their request to have the 13 women testify, and added six more to the list. The new potential witnesses include model Janice Dickinson; a secretary who knew Cosby in the 1960s; and a performer who opened for him in the early 1980s.
Attorneys for Cosby, who is now 80, have said the women’s memories are tainted at best and will ask the judge to bar them from testifying at the retrial, scheduled for April. In many cases, they have responded to the women’s specific allegations, as noted below.
The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they are sexual-assault victims, but those named below have consented.
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THE CRIMINAL CASE ANDREA CONSTAND
Ages then: She was 30; he was 66.
Constand told police in 2005 that Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted her a year earlier at his suburban Philadelphia estate. A Temple University basketball team manager, Constand said he gave her three unlabeled blue pills to “relax” as she discussed a career change. She said she was semi-conscious when he digitally penetrated her. Cosby, a Temple alumnus, booster and trustee, is charged with sexually assaulting a person unable to give consent, a felony that could bring 10 years in prison upon conviction. The defense says her story has evolved and there were other times they were sexually intimate. Cosby has pleaded not guilty.
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THE 19 OTHERS
KRISTINA RUEHLI
Ages then: She was 22, he was 27.
Ruehli met Cosby in 1965 while working as a secretary at a Los Angeles talent agency. She says he invited her to a party at his home but that it was a ruse. Ruehli, who was named Donna Czapla at the time, says there were no guests other than her and an actress she’d brought with her. She says she took two drinks from Cosby and soon felt as if she were “floating.” Ruehli says she passed out and woke up naked in Cosby’s bed as he fondled her breasts and tried forcing her to give him oral sex. Cosby’s lawyer in 2014 said her allegations were among a group of unsubstantiated, absurd, decades-old stories.
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LINDA BROWN
Ages then: She was 21; he was 32.
Brown’s agent sent the aspiring model to attend Cosby’s show in Toronto and have dinner with him afterward in 1969. He invited her to his hotel room to give her a gift and offered her a soda that caused her to black out, she said, before raping her. The defense questions how she “blacked out” after two sips of soda.
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CINDRA LADD
Ages then: She was 21; he was 32.
Ladd, a model-turned-Hollywood executive married to former MGM chairman Alan Ladd Jr., met Cosby in 1969 when he offered career advice. They were at his friend’s house in New York one day when she complained about having a headache and he gave her a pill he called “a miracle cure” from his doctor. She became incapacitated, and Cosby raped her, she said. The defense says she only assumes they had sex because she had blacked out.
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UNIDENTIFIED ACCUSER 1
Ages then: She was 23; he was 34.
She met Cosby through her job at the Playboy Club in New York in 1971. She said he offered her quaaludes in a limousine one day, which she declined. She then had three or four glasses of Champagne but believes they contained an intoxicant that left her unconscious. She said she woke up naked in a hotel room feeling sore and having been sexually assaulted. The defense says her case differs from Constand’s because they were closer in age and had only met twice.
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DONNA MOTSINGER
Ages then: She was 26; he was 33.
Motsinger was a waitress at the Trident restaurant in Sausalito, California, a favorite of Cosby’s. He befriended Motsinger and her 9-year-old son. In 1972, Motsinger said, she accepted an invitation to Cosby’s show and drank wine he gave her in the limousine on the way there. When a headache ensued, she took a pill he handed her. She said she recalls being fondled before waking up the next day, nearly naked, at her own home. The defense says the restaurant was “a notorious drug mecca” and Motsinger dated a founder of an LSD-linked band of hippies.
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MARGIE SHAPIRO
Ages then: She was 19; he was 38.
Shapiro worked at Castle Donuts in Santa Monica, California, in 1975 when Cosby stopped by. She said he invited her to the set of “Mother, Jugs & Speed” and then to a dinner party but instead took her to a house near the Playboy Mansion, where they played pinball fueled by Cosby’s challenge that whoever lost would have to take a pill she believed to be a quaalude. She lost. She said she recalls waking up to find Cosby having sex with her. The defense says the doughnut shop has closed and the boss died, leaving it unable to thoroughly investigate her account.
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THERESE SERIGNESE
Ages then: She was 19; he was 38.
Serignese, now a nurse, was in the gift shop of the Las Vegas Hilton in about 1975 when she met Cosby. He later invited her to his show and then to a room backstage, where he gave her two pills that left her incapacitated before he raped her, she said. Cosby, in a 2006 deposition in Constand’s lawsuit, testified that he gave Serignese quaaludes before a consensual sexual encounter. The defense says “her story about their lengthy 20-year relationship after the incident (many would call it an affair) has changed drastically over the years.”
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ELIZABETH
Ages then: She was 20; he was 38 or 39.
The woman, who gave her name only as Elizabeth when she spoke publicly in 2015, was a flight attendant who met Cosby on a New York-Los Angeles flight in 1976. She said he invited her to the Playboy Mansion and to dinner, where he insisted she try the sake. She said the drink made her feel like she was in a “trancelike state” and remembers next being in Cosby’s hotel room and him forcing her to perform oral sex.
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UNIDENTIFIED ACCUSER 2
Ages then: She was about 30; he was about 43.
The performer befriended Cosby after she opened for him at a Denver club in the early 1980s. Cosby arranged for the woman to meet him in Las Vegas. There, she said, Cosby invited her to his hotel room to discuss career plans and knocked her out with a spiked cordial drink. She said she’s sure Cosby raped her because a “girl can tell” when she has had sex.
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UNIDENTIFIED ACCUSER 3
Ages then: She was 23; he was about 43.
The waitress and aspiring actress met Cosby in 1981, saw him as a mentor and accepted his invitation to eat dinner in a private room at the Denver club where she worked. She said she blacked out after drinking half a glass of wine and awoke to find herself naked in Cosby’s hotel bed as he stood over her in an open bathrobe. She said genital soreness and fluids on her body indicated that he’d raped her.
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LINDA KIRKPATRICK
Ages then: She was 25; he was 43.
Kirkpatrick met Cosby while playing against him in a tennis tournament in 1981. He offered her tickets to his show at the Las Vegas Hilton, where he gave her a drink in his dressing room that left her incapacitated, she said. She next recalls him being on top of her, kissing her and rubbing against her. The defense says her account is unique among Cosby accusers because they were at a party, surrounded by numerous people, when she took the drink.
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JANICE DICKINSON
Ages then: She was 27; he was 45.
Dickinson met Cosby in 1982 and saw him as a trusted friend and mentor as she tried to broaden her career from modeling to music and television. Dickinson said Cosby arranged for her to fly to see him perform in Lake Tahoe and knocked her out with a pill he gave her after she’d complained of stomach pain. She said she woke up in pain and found fluids between her legs. She never reported the encounter to authorities and has said she was afraid if she did that her career would be damaged and Cosby would retaliate. Cosby lawyer Martin Singer said in 2014 that Dickinson’s allegations were a lie and a “glaring contradiction” to what she wrote in her book and what she’d previously told the media.
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JANICE BAKER-KINNEY
Ages then: She was 24; he was 45.
Baker-Kinney, then a Harrah’s bartender in Reno, Nevada, went to a pizza party at a nearby home where Cosby was staying in 1982. He insisted she take two pills, she said, before the backgammon game they were playing went blurry. She said she recalls seeing her blouse unbuttoned and his pants unzipped before she awoke naked with signs she had been sexually assaulted. The defense says her story is “nothing like Ms. Constand’s” because she only met Cosby once, “voluntarily” took quaaludes and apologized for passing out.
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HEIDI THOMAS
Ages then: She was 24; he was 46.
Thomas’ agent sent the aspiring actress to meet Cosby for career advice at a Harrah’s hotel in Reno in 1984, but the limousine he sent instead took her to a private house where she said he gave her a drink so she could play the intoxicated person in a script he gave her. During intermittent bouts of consciousness, she said, she was naked and Cosby forced her to perform oral sex. The defense says she has given three versions of her story.
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REBECCA NEAL
Ages then: She was about 28; he was about 46.
Neal worked as a masseuse at a Las Vegas health club where Cosby played tennis in the mid-1980s. He befriended her mother and aunt there, leading her to accept an invitation to his show at the Las Vegas Hilton and dinner afterward. Cosby urged her to have a drink set before her while he ate. She said he later raped her in his room while she was too disoriented to give consent. The defense says she knew him only for a few months, unlike Constand, and has said a waiter served the shot of vodka.
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UNIDENTIFIED ACCUSER 4
Ages then: She was 21; he was 48.
She was a flight attendant and aspiring model when she met Cosby in 1986. After several months of friendship, including a chance to be an extra on Cosby’s television show, he invited her to dinner and then to his room at the Drake Hotel in Chicago. There, she said, he gave a glass of Champagne laced with an intoxicant that left her unable to ward off his sexual advances before she passed out.
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CHELAN LASHA
Ages then: She was 17; he was 48.
The model and aspiring actress met and befriended Cosby in 1986. Lasha said he invited her to his Las Vegas hotel room to introduce her to a modeling agency representative and gave her a pill he described as an antihistamine and a double shot of almond liqueur to help fight a cold. At Cosby’s behest, Lasha said, she changed into a robe, wet her hair and posed for a few modeling shots. She said Cosby then directed her to the bed, where he pinched her nipple and humped her leg as she lay immobilized and unable to speak. She says she woke up naked.
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LISE-LOTTE LUBLIN
Ages then: She was 23; he was about 52.
Lublin was an aspiring actress when she met Cosby in 1989. She and her mother went for a run with Cosby, and he gave them show tickets before he invited her to the Elvis suite of the Las Vegas Hilton to practice acting improvisation. He prodded her to take two drinks to relax, which she ultimately did. She said she recalls seeing Cosby stroking her hair and walking down a hall before she woke up at home two days later. She said she believes she was sexually assaulted. The defense says Lublin assumes she is a victim based on other media accounts but can only remember Cosby stroking her hair.
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KELLY JOHNSON
Ages then: She was 34; he was 58.
Johnson was the only other accuser allowed to testify at Cosby’s first trial. She worked for Cosby’s agent and knew the entertainer for six years when he invited her to lunch at his bungalow at the Bel Air Hotel in 1996 to discuss her acting ambitions. She testified that Cosby was in a robe and slippers when she arrived and that he offered her wine and pressured her to take a large white pill that knocked her out. When she woke up, she said, her dress was disheveled and her breasts were exposed. Johnson said Cosby put lotion on her hand and forced her to touch his genitals. Johnson had corroborating evidence in the form of a 1996 workers’ compensation claim. Cosby’s lawyers argued Johnson was seeking a payout. At the first trial, a defense lawyer noted that she mixed up the years and other details of her encounters with Cosby and grilled her about why she never said anything when she left her job.
