In a developing story, the Pennsylvania DA announced charges this morning against Bill Cosby for the alleged 2004 drugging and rape of Andrea Constand, a former Temple University employee.
Constand filed a complaint against Cosby in 2005, but police claimed they didn’t have sufficient evidence to pursue it at the time. The Associated Press writes that recently released excerpts from Cosby’s deposition in a civil lawsuit led to the reopening of the case this past July. The statute of limitations in cases such as these is 12 years, and would have run out this January.
District Attorney Kevin Steele explained that the “charges stem from a sexual assault that took place on an evening in 2004 at Mr. Cosby’s home,” and that Cosby, who worked with Constand at the time in a local basketball program, allegedly “urged her to take pills that he provided to her and drink wine.”
Cosby is expected to be arraigned this afternoon on charges of aggravated indecent assault, a first-degree felony punishable in Pennsylvania by a prison sentence of not more than 20 years.
Constand’s attorney Dolores Troiani told People,
Obviously we appreciate the expression of confidence in her. We’ll have to see what happens. We hope justice will be done. We will cooperate fully.
(via Mediaite and Jezebel, image via Shutterstock)
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