Bill Cosby Breaks Silence Following Sexual Assault Charge

USA comedian Bill Cosby appeared in a Pennsylvania court to face a sexual assault charge over a 2004 incident – the first criminal charge filed against him after dozens of women claimed abuse.

The sight of 78-year-old Bill Cosby walking with a cane into a Pennsylvania courthouse as he held the hands of his lawyers on Wednesday was in stark contrast to the spry, wisecracking 1980s TV father most Americans remember.

Victoria Valentino also said she cried when she saw Cosby’s mugshot.

Cosby’s legal-team spokeswoman, lawyer Monique Pressley, who accompanied him to his arraignment, said in a statement late Wednesday the charge was “no surprise” coming on the heels of “a hotly contested election for this county’s DA during which this case was made the focal point”.

Cosby was arrested and charged with drugging and sexually assaulting a woman at his home in January 2004.

“First, before we even have to mount a defence, we’ll have to look at the game of political football that this Montgomery County DA’s office has played with my client’s life”, Ms Pressley told ABC’s Good Morning America show.

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles district attorney is reviewing an investigation of Cosby’s behavior conductd by the local police department in 2008, meaning the case falls within the statute of limitations. Constand’s lawyer, Dolores Troiani, confirmed to CNN that the charge was connected to her.

The criminal charges leveled against him Wednesday involve one woman and stem from an alleged 2005 incident.

The Cosby Show star did not enter a plea, and was released on $1 million bail.

Constand met Cosby through his alma mater Temple University, where she was working at the time. But Steele never said what he would do if he were elected.

Victoria Valentino, one of the other women who accused Cosby, said that she was in “shell shock”.

She said prosecutors in the case were relying on a set of weak allegations, adding that a court does not run like the media does. Chloe Goins alleges Cosby drugged and molested her at the Playboy Mansion when she was a minor.

Many of those alleged assaults date back decades, and the statute of limitations for bringing charges has expired in almost every case.

The comedian’s reps also touched on the 2005 deposition that surfaced this past summer after U.S. District Judge Eduardo Robreno unsealed the document.

The release of the testimony set off a torrent of allegations from other women that all but destroyed Cosby’s good-guy image.

And Pressley took a shot at the New York Daily News’ “He said-she said, she said, she said…” cover.

Testimony in that civil case was made public in 2015, much of it unflattering to Mr Cosby.

Some victims put off going to police because they fear family, friends or law enforcement will blame or judge them for what happened, said Monika Johnson Hostler, president of the National Alliance to End Sexual Violence.

“I think Andrea is a liar and I know she’s a liar because I was there”.