美国国家公共电台 NPR More Than 10 Years After Alleged Sexual Assault, Bill Cosby Trial To Begin

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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Some other news now, jury selection in the criminal trial of Bill Cosby begins in Pennsylvania today. It's a year and a half since Cosby was charged with felony counts of sexual assault over a 2004 encounter, which Cosby contends was consensual. Bobby Allyn of member station WHYY reminds us how this case came to light.

BOBBY ALLYN, BYLINE¹: Associated Press reporter Maryclaire Dale was sick of all the he-said-she-said about Cosby and thought a confidential² deposition³ he did might shed some new light on the allegations. So she asked the judge to make it public.

MARYCLAIRE DALE: This time, the judge said that, you know, Cosby's public moralizing about things had made him a public figure and diminished his right to privacy over matters that his lawyer said would be embarrassing for the star.

ALLYN: And the statements Cosby made under oath in that deposition got us to where we are today. Cosby admitted to buying drugs so that he could give them to women he wanted to have sex with.

He also talked about what happened one night in 2004 at his suburban⁴ Philadelphia mansion⁵ with former Temple University employee Andrea Constand. She looked up to Cosby as a mentor⁶. Prosecutors⁷ read this and filed charges. Here's Deborah Tuerkheimer, a legal expert on sex crimes, describing Constand's account.

DEBORAH TUERKHEIMER: She drove to his house to talk about her career. She took the three pills that he offered her. He apparently⁸ said they were an herbal remedy because she was stressed. She drank the wine he gave her, and this left her unable to move or speak.

ALLYN: And that's when the alleged⁹ sexual attack happened. Legal experts say Cosby's defense¹⁰ team will likely try to poke¹¹ holes in Constand's story to try to make her look unreliable, like how she waited more than a year to report the incident to police.

DAVID HARRIS: That can lead to an argument that this just never happened.

ALLYN: David Harris is a law professor at the University of Pittsburgh. He says Cosby's legal team sees it this way.

HARRIS: It was a figment of her imagination, or she made it up in order to extort¹² money from him - because a person who was sexually assaulted would not behave that way.

ALLYN: But Harris says prosecutors can point out that victims of sexual assault often have many reasons to not report something right away, not least of which, in this case, is Cosby's fame and power.

Celebrity¹³, though, didn't stop more than 50 women from publicly accusing Cosby of sexual assault or misconduct. And one of them is expected to take the stand to add to what Constand has to say. Laurie Levenson, law professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, says the second accuser's story is critical.

LAURIE LEVENSON: What they're going to focus on is that this was a signature crime, that Cosby had a particular way of drugging his victims and then having sex with him. And so even the testimony¹⁴ of one person - additional person's enough.

ALLYN: Last week, Cosby broke his silence and talked on a Sirius XM radio program. Cosby said he doesn't plan to testify in his trial. The show also aired a clip of his daughter claiming that racism¹⁵ has played a major role in the case. Does Cosby agree? Here's his answer to that.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

BILL COSBY: Could be, could be.

ALLYN: Shortly after, he elaborated on whether he thinks racial bias¹⁶ was a factor in his prosecution¹⁷.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

COSBY: Some of it may very well be that.

ALLYN: Legal expert Tuerkheimer says the interview was part of a conscious effort by Cosby's defense team to try to change the optics ahead of the trial. She says its goal is to make Cosby look like the victim.

TUERKHEIMER: I think the hope is that if public opinion shifts outside the courtroom, that percolates¹⁸ into the courtroom.

ALLYN: Tuerkheimer says everyone knows who Bill Cosby is, and lots of people have read about the case. But the trick now will be finding 12 people who haven't made up their minds.

For NPR News, I'm Bobby Allyn in Philadelphia.