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 The district attorney, Jackie Lacey, determined prosecution
was barred in the earlier case by the statute of limitations and
in the latter case by insufficient evidence for a felony charge
and the statute of limitations for misdemeanors, her office said
in a statement.
The Los Angeles ruling, which does not name the two accusers,
comes a week after Cosby was criminally charged in Pennsylvania
with sexually assaulting a woman in his home near Philadelphia
after plying her with drugs and alcohol in 2004.
The woman in the earlier Los Angeles case said she was 17 when
the alleged assault occurred. The woman in the later case said
she was 18 at the time of the alleged rape. The women in both
cases said Cosby plied them with alcohol.
The Pennsylvania case, filed just before the statute of
limitations for criminal prosecution in that state was due to
lapse, stems from allegations by a former Temple University
employee, Andrea Constand, who settled a civil case against
Cosby for an undisclosed sum in 2006.
The Pennsylvania case marked the first and only criminal charged
brought against the once-beloved entertainer whose father-figure
persona has been marred by dozens of similar accusations, some
dating back decades.
Cosby, best known for playing Doctor Cliff Huxtable, the family
patriarch in the long-running hit television sitcom "The Cosby
Show," has acknowledged marital infidelity but has denied any
allegations of sexual misconduct.
"We are satisfied that the Los Angeles D.A.'s Office fully and
fairly evaluated all the facts and evidence, and came to the
right conclusion," Cosby's legal team said in a statement.
[to top of second column] |
Los Angeles County prosecutors, citing the statute of limitations,
previously declined to bring a criminal case in connection with a
woman who reported she was molested at age 15 by Cosby at the
Playboy Mansion in 1974.
The accuser in the most recent complaint investigated by the
district attorney said she, too, was sexually assaulted at the
Playboy Mansion, during a party there in the summer of 2008, after
Cosby served her an alcoholic beverage that made her dizzy and
escorted her to an upstairs bedroom to lie down.
The woman, who was 18 at the time, told investigators she awoke to
find her clothes off, her breasts moist as if they had been licked
and Cosby at the foot of the bed biting her toe as he appeared to be
masturbating.
Prosecutors said they were unable to substantiate that Cosby or his
accuser attended the party in question, nor could they corroborate
her account with a friend whom the woman identified as a potential
witness.
In the earlier case, the woman, then 17, reported she was raped by
Cosby after he had plied her with alcohol at a Hollywood jazz club,
according to prosecutors.
(Reporting by Steve Gorman; Editing by Leslie Adler)
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