Prosecutors want to call 19 other Bill Cosby accusers - including model Janice Dickinson - to try to show pattern of 'prior bad acts' over five decades at his retrial

  • Prosecutors filed 101-page motion in Pennsylvania on Thursday asking to allow testimony from 19 'prior victims'
  • Model Janice Dickinson cold be called to testify about her alleged assault in Lake Tahoe, California, when she was 27 and Cosby was 45 
  • During comedian's first trial, which ended in hung jury last June, prosecutors were permitted to call just one past accuser to testify
  • Kelley Johnson said from the same during first trial that Cosby assaulted her at a Los Angeles hotel in 1996
  • Cosby is charged with drugging and sexually assaulting former Temple University employee Andrea Constand in 2004 

By Associated Press

Published: 19:43, 18 January 2018 | Updated: 22:49, 18 January 2018

Prosecutors preparing for Bill Cosby's retrial on sexual assault charges are asking a judge to admit testimony from 19 other accusers to try to show a pattern of 'prior bad acts' spanning a half-century. 

The comedian's first trial ended with a hung jury in June 2017. In that proceeding, prosecutors asked to call 13 other accusers, but the judge allowed only one to testify, a woman named Kelly Johnson who said she was attacked by Cosby at a Los Angeles hotel in 1996.

In Thursday's 101-page motion filed in the Court of Common Pleas of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, prosecutors asked Judge Steven O'Neill to reconsider his earlier order, saying the 19 women's accusations show that the 80-year-old Cosby's prior bad acts are sufficiently 'distinctive and so nearly identical as to become the signature of the same perpetrator.'

Scroll down to read motion  

In this Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2018 photo, Bill Cosby pauses to talk to reporters as he leaves following a dinner at an Italian restaurant in Philadelphia
Andrea Constand

Readying for Round 2: Prosecutors preparing for Bill Cosby's retrial on sexual assault charges involving Andrea Constand (right) are asking a judge to admit testimony from 19 other accusers of the comedian (pictured left on January 10)

Kathleen Bliss, one of Cosby's lawyers, said she couldn't comment on the filing.

Pennsylvania law allows testimony about 'prior bad acts' if they fit a nearly identical crime pattern.

Prosecutors say that's the case for the TV star once dubbed 'America's Dad' for his role as Cliff Huxtable on The Cosby Show. 

Prior Victim No 13: The new potential witnesses include model Janice Dickinson, who claims Cosby drugged and raped her at age 27 in Lake Tahoe, California in 1982

They say Cosby routinely used his fame and power to befriend impressionable young women, most of them aspiring models and actresses, knocked them out with drugs or alcohol and then sexually assaulted them.

Cosby is charged with drugging and sexually assaulting former Temple University employee Andrea Constand at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004. 

Cosby, who has been married to wife Camille since 1964, has said the encounter was consensual.

The new potential witnesses include model Janice Dickinson, who claims Cosby drugged and raped her in Lake Tahoe, California in 1982, when she was 27 and the comic was 45; a woman who says Cosby drugged and assaulted her after she opened for him at a Denver club in 1980; and a talent agency secretary who says Cosby spiked her drinks and tried to force her to give him oral sex in 1965.

In the run-up to his first trial, Cosby's lawyers objected to any testimony about 'prior bad acts,' saying that in some cases the sex was consensual, while others involved models and actresses falsely accusing Cosby to gain money or attention.

THE WOMEN WHO SAY THEY WERE ATTACKED BY COSBY

Andrea Constand - A Temple University employee, she claimed in 2006 that Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted her in his Philadelphia-area mansion two years earlier. Cosby eventually settled this suit out of court as the prosecution said they had 13 Jane Does who would testify Cosby did the same to them in the past.

Barbara Bowman - Bowman told MailOnline that Cosby raped and drugged her back in 1985 when she was a 17-year-old aspiring actress. Bowman was one of the 13 Jane Does in the 2006 trial against Cosby.

Joan Tarshis - Tarshis claimed that she was just 19-years-old when Cosby drugged and raped her twice in Hollywood back in 1969 while she was working as a writer for him.

Janice Dickinson - The supermodel said in an interview that the then45-year-old Cosby asked her, then aged 27, to come to Lake Tahoe and talk about a television role in 1982, but ended up drugging and raping her.

Tamara Green - Green, who first came forward in 2005 told MailOnline that she was an aspiring actress in the 1970s when Cosby gave her pills and pretended to care for her while she had the flu, but instead sexually assaulted her.

Therese Serignese - Also one of the 13 Jane Does, she says she was 19 when Cosby drugged and raped her in Las Vegas after one of his shows.

Louisa Moritz - She accused Cosby of sexual assault, saying he once forced her into oral sex, backstage at The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in 1971, and implied he would further her career if she went through with it.

Linda Joy Traitz - She said earlier this week that she was just 19 when Cosby drove her out to a beach and tried to get her to take pills to relax, before becoming 'sexually aggressive'. Traitz, of Hallandale Beach, Florida, has been charged in the past with trafficking pills. Cosby's attorney, Marty Singer, is trying to use Traitz's past to discredit her claims against his client.

Beth Ferrier - Beth Ferrier claims she had relationship with Cosby in the mid-1980s. She claims that she awoke in her car with her clothes in disarray and not remembering what had happened. Ferrier has claimed that he drugged her coffee.

Carla Ferrigno - The wife of Incredible Hulk star Lou Ferrigno, claims Cosby tried to sexually assault her during a gathering at his house in 1967. What's more, Cosby allegedly tried to use a friend to help court Ferrigno, and allegedly made his move on the former Playboy Bunny just moments after his own wife, Camille, left the room.

Angela Leslie - The former model-actress claims that Cosby forced her to masturbate him in his Vegas hotel suite after giving her a strong drink in 1992.

Renita Chainey Hill - The 47-year-old mother-of-three who met Cosby when she was offered a role on Picture Pages in Pittsburgh claimed he would fly her to different cities around the United States and drug her during a four-year relationship.

Kristina Ruehli - A New Hampshire grandmother-of-eight, now 71, claims Cosby invited her back to his house for 'party'. She arrived and no one was there. Ruehli alleges that he drugged two bourbons he poured her and she came to when he was on top of her, shirtless

Victoria Valentino - The former Playboy playmate claims Cosby drugged her and a friend, tried to rape her friend then violated her instead in a Hollywood apartment after dinner

Kelley Johnson -  Johnson first met Cosby in 1990 whale working as a assistant to his agent. She was 29 years old and he was 52. she said he was fatherly toward her and became her mentor, but in 1996 he drugged and sexually assaulted her at the Bel Air Hotel.

 

His attorneys also argued that some of the allegations were so vague - with some of the women unsure of when the alleged encounters even took place - that it would be impossible for Cosby to defend himself.

He has a new legal team for the retrial, set for April 2 in suburban Philadelphia.

Prosecutors say the 19 women are among more than 50 they interviewed claiming Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted them.

'Each of these women has come forward with harrowing accounts of sexual assault by the defendant, strikingly similar to the tactics he employed with Ms. Constand,' the motion reads.

The testimony of the 19 others - should Montgomery County Judge O'Neill allow some or all of it - could bolster the case that turns on the question of consent. 

Cosby, in a decade-old deposition, acknowledged some of the encounters but said they were consensual.

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