4-10-18-ERNIE ALLEN’S-TOP STORY-
NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) — A topless protester with “Women’s Lives Matter” written on her body in red ink charged at Bill Cosby as he walked into a suburban Philadelphia courthouse Monday for the start of his sexual assault retrial.
The woman jumped over a barricade and launched toward Cosby but was intercepted by sheriff’s deputies. She was taken into custody and led away in handcuffs.
Cosby seemed startled by the commotion as protesters chanted at him, but was not touched and is uninjured.
The unidentified woman was among about a half dozen people chanting in support of Cosby’s accuser. She had “Women’s Lives Matter” written in red ink on her chest and stomach along with other phrases in black and red all over her body.
Opening arguments are scheduled to begin Monday morning and prosecutors have lined up a parade of accusers to make the case that the man revered as “America’s Dad” lived a double life as one of Hollywood’s biggest predators.
Cosby’s retrial likely won’t be anything like his first one. He’s fighting back with a new, high-profile lawyer and an aggressive strategy: attacking Andrea Constand as a greedy liar and casting the other women testifying as bandwagon accusers looking for a share of the spotlight.
“You’ve seenpreviews and coming attractions, but things have changed,” said professor Laurie Levenson of Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.
Cosby’s first trial last spring ended in a cliffhanger, with jurors unable to reach a unanimous verdict after five days of tense deliberations on charges that the man who made millions of viewers laugh as wise and understanding Dr. Cliff Huxtable on “The Cosby Show” drugged and molested Constand at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004.
