LIVE UPDATES: Bill Cosby’s sex assault conviction overturned by Pennsylvania court
Bill Cosby’s sex assault conviction was overturned by Pennsylvania’s highest court. The court said Wednesday that it found an agreement with a previous prosecutor that prevented him from being charged in the case.
Coverage for this event has ended.
Reuters
Gloria Allred, a high-power attorney representing 33 women who accused Bill Cosby of misconduct, has said that she is proceeding with a new civil trial against the disgraced actor in Los Angeles County.
In a press conference held after Cosby's release, Allred, who also represents accusers in various other high-profile sexual misconduct suits, said that "Mr. Cosby is not home free" and stated that she will pursue a new civil suit.
In the lawsuit, Allred will represent a woman who alleges that she is a victim of child sexual abuse by the "Cosby Show" star. The accuser claims Cosby abused her at the Playboy mansion in Southern California in her youth.
The case had been stayed for trial until the conclusion of Cosby's criminal case, which took place on Wednesday with the overturning.
Click here to read more.
News of Bill Cosby’s release from prison Wednesday – after his sexual assault conviction was overturned by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court – reverberated through Hollywood.
Hollywood’s biggest supporters of the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements – among other celebs – immediately took to social media to share their reactions to the verdict; the onslaught of opinion was strong and swift as Cosby was the first mega name to be prosecuted for alleged sexual assaults since the #MeToo era blanketed the industry as a whole.
Click here to read more.
Bill Cosby's release from prison could have a chilling effect on survivors coming forward after Pennsylvania's highest court threw out the famed comic's conviction on Wednesday, advocates for sexual assault victims told Fox News.
"It is incredibly disappointing. It is shocking that someone could have committed so many sexual assaults and get away with it because of a procedural decision," Scott Berkowitz, the president of the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, said Wednesday.
Click here to read more.
"The Cosby Show" actress Phylicia Rashad is backtracking an earlier statement in which she celebrated the shocking news that her longtime TV husband Bill Cosby’s sex assault conviction had been overturned by Pennsylvania’s highest court.
"I fully support survivors of sexual assault coming forward," she wrote. "My post was in no way intended to be insensitive to their truth. Personally, I know from friends and family that such abuse has lifelong residual effects. My heartfelt wish is for healing."
Earlier on Wednesday, Rashad praised the ruling, stating "a miscarriage of justice is corrected!"
Click here to read more.
Reuters
A joke made by comedian Hannibal Buress back in 2014 prompted dozens of women to come forward with sexual assault allegations against Bill Cosby.
Buress previously opened up about the fallout after his infamous Cosby rape joke.
"I was like, ‘Oh that’s crazy,’ and then I shut my laptop," Buress said during an interview with Fox 411 back in 2015.
Click here to read more.
Andrea Constand, a Bill Cosby accuser whose allegations helped put the comedian behind bars, has released a statement along with her attorneys after the 83-year-old was released from prison.
In the statement shared to Twitter, she called the conviction's overturning "disappointing" and said that "it may discourage those who seek justice for sexual assault in the criminal justice system from reporting or participating in the prosecution of the assailant or may force a victim to choose between filing either a criminal or civil action."
Click here to read more.
AP Photo/Matt Slocum
Bill Cosby reacted to his prison release Wednesday by reaffirming his innocence and thanking his fans in a tweet.
"I have never changed my stance nor my story," Cosby wrote. "I have always maintained my innocence."
He added, "Thank you to all my fans, supporters and friends who stood by me through this ordreal. Special thanks to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court for upholding the rule of law."
Ebonee Williams, a former publicist for Bill Cosby, said the Pennsylvania Supreme Court's decision to vacate Cosby's sex assault conviction "is a huge win."
"I'm overwhelmed," she said. "You fight for something and you believe in something, and it didn't go your way during the second trial, and to see things come around for him, it's big. It's historic."
Williams said she had visited Cosby in 2018 shortly after he was sentenced.
"His fortitude remained intact," she said. "He wasn't going to give up and he didn't. He never faltered. To maintain your innocence and then to receive this huge win, I know he's just ecstatic and I know Mrs. Cosby is ecstatic."
AP Photo/Matt Slocum
Bill Cosby let his lawyers do the talking in a brief appearance with reporters outside his Pennsylvania home after being released from prison Wednesday.
"We are thrilled to have Mr. Cosby home," his attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, said.
Bonjean added that Cosby should have never been prosecuted. His released followed a state supreme court decision to vacate his 2018 conviction on sex assault charges.
"They pulled the rug out from under him because of politics, because of popular opinon," Bonjean said of the decision to prosecute Cosby.
Cosby stood alongside his legal team and a spokesperson, embracing them and wearing a T-shirt from Cental High School, a Philadelphia school he attended as a teen.
However, Cosby kept his mouth shut when a reporter asked how he was feeling.
"He is extremely happy to be home," Bonjean said. "He looks forward to reuniting with his wife and children."
Philip Dube, a Los Angeles County deputy public defender who was not involved in the case, told Fox News that Bill Cosby was released because he was "denied due process and the benefit of an immunity agreement reached between him and prosecutors during civil litigation brought by his victims."
"In exchange for testifying at civil depositions, the elected DA in office at the time granted Cosby immunity from prosecution. That agreement lives beyond the term in office of the elected DA at the time," he explained.
Click here to read more.
Bill Cosby is making his first public comments after his sex assault conviction was overturned and he was released from prison Wednesday.
Click here to watch live.
Social media erupted on Wednesday afternoon when Bill Cosby’s sex assault conviction was overturned by Pennsylvania’s highest court as celebrities, media members and politicians alike expressed disgust at the decision.
Blue checkmarks like Rosanna Arquette, Joy Reid and Omar Jimenez all weighed in on the news.
Others made jokes, such as Defense One executive editor Kevin Baron, who wrote, "Bill Cosby got out of jail faster than the Pentagon can get out of Afghanistan."
Click here to read more.
Attorneys for disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein praised Pennsylvania’s highest court for overturning Bill Cosby's sex assault conviction Wednesday, while indicating confidence that their client will have his rape conviction tossed out as well.
Weinstein's legal counsel is demanding a new trial more than a year after his rape conviction in New York. In a brief filed in April, they argued prosecutors were buoyed by improper rulings from a judge who was "cavalier" in protecting the disgraced movie mogul’s right to a fair trial.
Click here to read more.
Fox News
Bill Cosby was seen leaving a Pennsylvania state prison Wednesday after the state supreme court vacated his sex assault conviction.
Click here to watch live.
Attorney Jonna Spilbor said she was "not surprised one bit" about the Pennsylvania Supreme Court's decision to vacate Bill Cosby's sexual assault conviction.
Spilbor provided insight on the violation of due process in the trial and Cosby's release from prison on "America Reports."
Click here to watch.
Al Levine/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images
"The Cosby Show" actress Phylicia Rashad celebrated the shocking news that her longtime TV husband Bill Cosby’s sex assault conviction was overturned Wednesday by Pennsylvania’s highest court, tweeting that a "miscarriage of justice" was corrected.
"FINALLY!!!! A terrible wrong is being righted- a miscarriage of justice is corrected!" Rashad wrote to accompany a photo of her former co-star.
Click here to read more.
This decision by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court today to overturn the conviction of Bill Cosby must be devastating for Bill Cosby’s accusers. My heart especially goes out to those who bravely testified in both of his criminal cases. I represented a majority of the prior bad act accusers who testified. Despite the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s decision, this was an important fight for justice and even though the court overturned the conviction on technical grounds, it did not vindicate Bill Cosby’s conduct and should not be interpreted as a statement or a finding that he did not engage in the acts of which he has been accused.
Live Coverage begins here