Bill Cosby, who is charged with drugging and raping a woman in 2004 at his home in Pennsylvania, is being retried after a judge was forced to declare a mistrial in the case last year.
Bill Cosby arrives for the first day of his sexual assault retrial on April 9, 2018.
Mark Makela / Getty Images
Bill Cosby arrived for the first day of his sexual assault retrial in Pennsylvania on Monday to protesters and a courtroom that will be under the glare of the #MeToo movement.
Cosby, who is charged with drugging and raping Andrea Constand at his home in 2004, avoided a guilty verdict last year when the jury failed to reach consensus, forcing the judge to declare a mistrial. But that trial on the same charges occurred before the Harvey Weinstein sexual misconduct scandal broke, prompting the #MeToo and Time's Up movements that have changed how allegations of sexual assault and harassment are treated.
“We are in a different place culturally than we were a year ago,” Maya Raghu, director of workplace equality and senior counsel at the National Women’s Law Center, told BuzzFeed News. “The effect of the national reckoning that we have been having for the last six months in particular has helped dispel a lot of stereotypes about victims. People are more willing to understand how things happen, why these things happen, not to blame the victim for them, and to not be so quick to judge.”
As with the last go around, protesters gathered outside the Montgomery County courthouse in Norristown on Monday. A topless woman with the phrase "Women's Lives Matter" written in red ink across the front her body was arrested after she ran in front of Cosby outside.
A protester is detained after Bill Cosby arrives for his sexual assault retrial on April 9, 2018.
Corey Perrine / AP
Constand said she came to know Cosby while running the women’s basketball program at the comedian’s alma mater, Temple University.
She testified that after she arrived at his home in Cheltenham, Pennsylvania, to discuss her career plans in 2004, Cosby offered her three blue pills, which he allegedly said were herbal. Soon after taking the pills, Constand testified, her speech became slurred and she began to lose control of her body. She said she didn’t remember passing out until she was “jolted awake” with Cosby’s hand inside her vagina as he masturbated.
More than 50 women have accused the 80-year-old comedian of also drugging and sexually assaulting them. But last year, prosecutors were only allowed to call one other woman to bolster Constand's allegation with a similar accusation of being assaulted. This time, however, prosecutors will be able to call five women who say they were similarly assaulted by Cosby.
LINK: Experts Say Bill Cosby Will Have To Face The #MeToo Music At His Retrial For Rape
LINK: A Topless Protester Was Arrested After Charging Toward Bill Cosby Outside A Courthouse
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