Nigeria Entertainment News
US judge Insists On Presiding Over Cosby Sex Case
The judge presiding over Bill Cosby’s retrial for alleged sexual molestation, Judge Steven O’Neill, has refused request in a written order demanding him to step down for alleged bias because his wife works with sexual assault victims for alleged bias because his wife works with sexual assault victims.
The head of Cosby’s defense team, Tom Mesereau, in an attempt to substantially delay the retrial for alleged sexual assault, added another bid for a retrial.
The defense pointed out that “a clear appearance of partiality” because Deborah O’Neill coordinates a sexual trauma team at the University of Pennsylvania, donated to an activist group that had targeted Cosby, and wrote a dissertation on acquaintance rape.
O’Neill, who has already presided over the case for two years, had no choice but to declare a mistrial last June when the jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict against the comedy legend on three counts of aggravated indecent assault.
According to Punch the 80-year-old, once a pioneering African-American entertainer, is charged of drugging and molesting a former university basketball official at his Philadelphia home in 2004. He says their relations were consensual.
About 60 women have publicly alleged the Emmy-winning actor of being a serial sexual abuser, but most of the alleged abuse happened too long ago to prosecute, making home to be criminally liable to only one of the alleged victims.
The 2017 trial undoubtedly damaged the once-towering icon of US popular culture, adored by millions as “America’s Dad” and best known for his seminal role as a father and obstetrician on hit 1984-92 TV series “The Cosby Show.”