NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) – Bill Cosby’s lawyer asked jurors Monday not to view him as a fallen celebrity on trial in a sexual assault case, but as a flawed man “whose infidelities have made him vulnerable” to these types of accusations.
Cosby, 79, the champion of fatherhood and family values, walked into court without his wife of more than 50 years, Camille, or any of their four daughters. He was instead joined by a TV daughter, Keshia Knight Pulliam, who was five when he made her a child star on the “The Cosby Show.”
A prosecutor in opening statements urged the jury to focus on the man, not the fictional characters he created.
“Actors and actresses, celebrities as a whole … they become larger than life. We have a collective imagination of all of the characters they portray and, because of that, we think that we really know them,” Assistant District Attorney Kristen Feden said. “In reality, we only have a glimpse of who they really are.”
About 60 women have accused Cosby of sexually assaulting them since 1965, but Cosby is charged in just one case, involving a former Temple University basketball team employee who said he drugged and molested her at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004.