Bill Cosby paid accuser $4.4 million in civil suit

That sum, hidden for more than a decade behind a confidentiality agreement signed by both parties, was revealed for the first time Monday by Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin R. Steele in his opening statement to jurors at Cosby’s retrial in Norristown.

The actress, who is said to have starred in four episodes of Cosby’s show between 1990 and 1992, had the words “Women’s Lives Matter” written in red ink across her chest when she jumped the barrier to get to the disgraced star to accost him.

“I guess in the end I wanted him to feel uncomfortable the way that he made other women feel”, she said.

Bill Cosby paid almost $3.4 million to a woman who accused him of sexual assault to stop her speaking about the allegations, a court heard yesterday.

The Pennsylvania instance, brought on by Andrea Constand, an former administrator at Temple University, Cosby’s alma mater, ” may be the sole unlawful prosecution to direct from your accusations, most that are too old to permit for charges.

Prosecutors in Bill Cosby’s sex assault retrial reminded jurors Monday to heed the fallen funnyman’s own admission he is a “dirty old man” and that he gave pills to accuser Andrea Constand.

Opening statements were delayed after Cosby’s team submitted a motion to dismiss juror 11, a white man, after he allegedly told a fellow prospective juror (who was not selected) that he thought Cosby was guilty.

Before court convened, a former “Cosby Show” actress stripped off her top and confronted Cosby as he walked to court, accompanied by publicists and police.

Observers expect a dramatically different trial.

Cosby is charged with drugging and molesting Constand at his home in 2004.

The allegations against Cosby stretch back more than a decade, but the trial takes place in a cultural moment vastly different from the one in which the first trial took place a year ago. “When someone is drugged, they don’t have the ability to consent”.

Watch video footage of the woman charging toward Cosby in the video above, tweeted by Associated Press reporter Mike Sisak.

Judge Steven O’Neill declared a mistrial.

Steele encouraged the jury to avoid falling into a “he said, she said” confusion by considering how similar Constand’s account of events was to other evidence that will be presented to the court in the course of the retrial. The judge had barred the witness, Marguerite “Margo” Jackson, from testifying at the first trial. In this case, the jury will also be privy to the amount of money Cosby paid Constand when they originally settled the case. The prosecutor also emphasized that the comic had himself admitted to “digital penetration” of Constand, while insisting that the sexual encounter was consensual.

Referring to the unsealed deposition, Steele on Monday told jurors, “That, ladies and gentlemen, led to our office reopening the investigation”.