Allegations against Bill Cosby/ Sources say Bill Cosby’s wife says accusers ‘consented’ to drugs and sex/ Cosby confesses to allegations in deposition

When Bill Cosby needed Quaaludes to give to women he hoped to have sex with, he knew a doctor to turn to: Leroy Amar, a Hollywood prescriber of the pills that became a popular recreational drug among celebrities and other glitzy party people in the 1970s.

Cosby’s access to Quaaludes — called “disco biscuits” in those days and known to induce disorientation and euphoria — has drawn new attention after the surfacing of a 10-year-old deposition from a closed sexual-assault civil case against Cosby in Pennsylvania. In the transcript, Cosby says he received seven prescriptions for Quaaludes, all of which were obtained from Amar, a gynecologist, ostensibly for a sore back.

“Did he know when he gave you those prescriptions that you had no intention of taking them?” a lawyer asked Cosby in the 2005 deposition.
“Yes,” the entertainer replied.
“Did you believe at that time that it was illegal for you to dispense those drugs?”
“Yes,” Cosby answered.

But for Amar, who earned his medical degree from Howard University in 1963, providing pills under questionable circumstances and skirting the law were not unusual. Whether he practiced in California, New York or at a string of clinics in Maryland, he was constantly in trouble with medical authorities and periodically lost his license. Disciplinary records from those states reveal the wrongdoing of a dangerous doctor who kept moving to stay in business.

“I would not doubt in a minute that Amar would sign a prescription to give anybody anything they wanted. That’s just the way he was,” said Meldon S. Hollis Jr., a former Washington-area lawyer who once represented the physician and later blamed him for the loss of his law license. “He was unscrupulous.”
Amar, who also practiced plastic surgery — badly — died in 2002 at age 71.

In the 1970s, Cosby and Amar moved in the same Hollywood social circles. In his deposition, Cosby said the doctor had an ownership stake in “Club Bayou,” a private social club in Los Angeles that Cosby visited.

In California, the medical board revoked Amar’s license in 1979 after finding that he acted with gross incompetence and negligence and had “engaged in the most serious misconduct.” In 1985, his license was reinstated under a host of conditions, including that he would never again perform surgery. But he failed to pay his licensing fees and never practiced in California again, records show.

The disciplinary documents reveal harrowing details of numerous plastic surgeries gone awry, including one woman whose implant ripped through her stitches and protruded from her breast as she developed a 102-degree fever and an infection. In another case, no one was available to administer general anesthesia, so Amar performed breast surgery with only a local numbing agent.

But Cosby’s deposition also reveals a chivalrous side of Amar: a man who confronted the comedian about his alleged inappropriate behavior with Tamara Green, a young woman whom the doctor introduced to Cosby.

An attorney for plaintiff Andrea Constand poses several questions to Cosby about Green, an aspiring singer and model who later publicly accused Cosby of drugging and sexually assaulting her.

In the deposition, Cosby repeatedly says he did not know Green and had no recollection of meeting her during a singing audition that she said had been arranged by Amar. The attorney goes on to say that Amar was furious to later hear from Green that Cosby had given her wine and made her feel “very uncomfortable” by asking her to speak song lyrics directly into his face.

“In her presence, Amar confronted Cosby, almost coming to blows,” the attorney recounts. “He warned Cosby never to do anything like that again to Green.”

Cosby denied that any of these events happened.


MORE HERE:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/when-bill-cosby-wanted-quaaludes-he-turned-to-this-gynecologist/2015/07/23/1599a9be-2fe1-11e5-8f36-18d1d501920d_story.html

Link to the NY Magazine story:

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Bill Cosby team's PR move may be too late in court of public opinion

Last week, a new public face appeared in Monique Pressley, defending the once-beloved comic performer now beleaguered by allegations of sexual assault from dozens of women. The Washington, D.C-based attorney, whose specialties include civil litigation, became the main legal spokesperson after a leaked 2005 deposition in which Cosby admitted he gave drugs to women with whom he wanted to have sex.

"There are a thousand-plus pages that are available of Mr. Cosby in his own words, and what we're seeing so far are headlines that are grabbing one excerpt or two and misinterpreting them," Pressley told ABC's "Good Morning America" last week. "The deposition said that there was use of Quaaludes, which was done often in the '70s."

Pressley enters the picture late in the game. In the last year, after decades-old allegations resurfaced and found a new force through social media, Cosby's image as a wise, caring and loving father figure cultivated through his wildly popular stand-up act, books and TV roles has largely been obliterated. The alleged victims coming forward in the last year have grown from a handful to 40, with most claiming a similar scenario — being given drugs without their consent and then being sexually assaulted.

Cosby has denied all accusations in statements and the few brief exchanges he's had with the news media. But before Pressley, the comedian did not have an authorized talking head aggressively defending him from a legal standpoint.

Public relations experts, however, contend that winning back public opinion will be an extraordinarily difficult if not impossible task at this point in the Cosby narrative. The damage inflicted upon the entertainer's reputation since a comedy routine by Hannibal Buress[/url] last year may simply be too great to repair.

"I think he moved too slowly to change his strategy," said Jason Maloni, a senior vice president at the crisis management firm Levick. "Where was Monique Pressley months ago when these accusations emerged? And it wasn't simply one or two. More than a dozen women were recounting eerily similar patterns of behavior. That would have been a more effective time to go on offense. Right now, the public's impression is made up. It's a little late in the game to be punching back."

Howard Bragman, chairman of Fifteen Minutes Public Relations, also doesn't believe Cosby has much to gain at this point. "I'm convinced Cosby is asking his legal team: 'Why aren't we fighting back?'" he said. "What I do think is when you're getting attacked and have lots of resources — money — it feels better to fight back — even if it's futile."

Cosby’s image took another hit over the weekend as New York Magazine released a cover with the photographs of 35 of his accusers. While there was little new information in the story, the collective effect of the photos resonated across social media.

Pressley declined to discuss the circumstances under which she'd joined Patrick O'Connor, Martin Singer and other members of Cosby's legal team, citing client confidentiality. But she made it clear about her intended role.

"I want people who are covering this to stick to the facts and not give more credit and more weight to allegations than is given to facts and reality concerning the legal issues," she told The Times. "I always start by reminding people of what I think gets lost. My client has never been charged with a crime, never been convicted of a crime and, in light of the recent deposition excerpts, has never admitted to the commission of a crime."

The 2005 deposition stems from a lawsuit filed by former Temple University employee Andrea Constand, who accused Cosby of drugging and molesting her. But Cosby said he gave her three Benadryl tablets before engaging in consensual sexual activities, according to the court documents.

The depositions in the case, settled out of court, are the only time Cosby is known to have responded to such claims against him while under oath.

Pressley said public defenses of Cosby have been a challenge for the legal team, because some of his accusers have filed defamation suits in response to the comedian's denials.
While she said such suits rarely hold up in court, they can tie up resources and have an inhibiting effect on addressing the claims.

"The only thing I can equate that to is someone goes into a person's house, sets it on fire, the person who owns the house comes in to put out the fire, and then gets sued for putting it out," she said.

Pressley, who is also a motivational speaker, said she will assertively highlight information in court documents that supports her client but isn't getting attention in the media. She cited the deposition in the Constand case as an example, even though the headlines it generated turned off Whoopi Goldberg, one of the few public supporters Cosby had left.

"The fact that that the deposition is out to me is not necessarily a negative," Pressley said. "You see in there that Mr. Cosby denied any nonconsensual sex with any person, denied slipping someone a drug without their knowledge. He admitted that he had Quaaludes and someone chose to take one."


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As evidence has continued to mount suggesting that Bill Cosby is a serial rapist, his lawyers and other representatives have continued to defend him. Even the recent release of a deposition in which he admitted to giving women drugs to facilitate having sex with them did not slow down the effort.

Cosby “admitted to nothing more than being one of the many people who introduced Quaaludes into their consensual sex life in the 1970s,” his lawyers argued in a document filed last week.

But one striking magazine cover could finally put an end to it all. Over a six month period, New York Magazine interviewed and photograhed 35 women who allege that Bill Cosby sexually assaulted them. They all appear on the cover of the latest issue along with an empty chair, which perhaps represents other women who have not yet spoken publicly.

The picture of the women on the cover is an extraordinarily powerful rebuttal to Cosby’s public relations campaign. (The response to the story has been so great that it has crashed the servers nymag.com for hours.) The group “ranges in age from early 20s to 80 and includes supermodels Beverly Johnson and Janice Dickinson alongside waitresses and Playboy bunnies and journalists.” According to New York Magazine, many of the women say they know of other women assaulted by Cosby who have not yet gone public.

In the face of these women, each of whom told their story to the magazine and were photographed individually wearing white, can Cosby’s handlers soldier on? Only time will tell. But it seems to have already influenced media coverage.

But while the public relations battle may be over, Cosby’s legal problems may just be beginning. Legal experts who spoke to ThinkProgress believe recently surfaced information — particularly the deposition — could make him vulnerable to civil lawsuits or criminal charges. Several of his accusers have filed suits.

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Monday, July 27, 2015, 6:50 PM

Bill Cosby on Monday appealed a judge's decision earlier this month to unseal excerpts from his 2005 deposition in a sexual battery case.

Their request, made to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, would do little to stem the tide of negative publicity Cosby has received since the documents' release but could provide vindication for the comedian, who argued they never should have been released in the first place.

The deposition excerpts, in which Cosby discussed his use of quaaludes during sex with young women, have been widely reported since U.S. District Judge Eduardo Robreno ordered their release. A full transcript of the deposition has since been obtained by numerous news outlets.

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Bill Cosby's Original Accuser Andrea Constand Calls Him a 'Narcissist' Who Missed Cues That She's Gay

COSBY:  "I walk her out. She does not look angry. She does not say to me, 'Don't ever do that again.' She doesn't walk out with an attitude of a huff – because I think that I'm a pretty decent reader of people and their emotions in these romantic sexual things, whatever you want to call them."

"As defendant admits in his deposition, despite his talent for interpreting female reactions to him, he did not realize plaintiff was gay until the police told him," she (Andrea) wrote.

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Three more women have publicly come forward with accusations that Bill Cosby sexually assaulted them in the 1970s and '80s. The three women, including an actress who appeared on The Cosby Show and the former wife of a vice president at the William Morris Agency, joined the more than 40 women who allege they were drugged, sexually assaulted or sexually harassed by the comedian.

At a press conference Wednesday, civil rights attorney Gloria Allred, who is now representing more than 21 accusers, said the three women are speaking out now to show their support for other accusers who have been criticized by Cosby's attorneys.

"There is no statute of limitations on free speech," says Allred. "A person who alleges that she or he is a victim can speak out at any time."

Cosby has consistently denied the allegations of sexual assault. His lawyer, Marty Singer, previously said that the claims "about alleged decades-old events are becoming increasingly ridiculous." Singer did not immediately comment on the new allegations.

At the press conference Wednesday, Colleen Hughes said she was a young stewardess with American Airlines in the early '70s when she allegedly met Cosby on a flight to Los Angeles. Hughes claimed Cosby flirted with her the entire flight and invited her to lunch in Beverly Hills. She agreed to go, but only with another stewardess. Cosby allegedly had a car and driver waiting for them at the airport but the other stewardess never showed up. Hughes claimed she drove with Cosby to the Fairmont Hotel and he allegedly watched television in her room while she got ready for lunch.

When she came out of the bathroom fully dressed, she said Cosby had allegedly ordered a bottle of champagne and was drinking it out of her Gucci pump. She claimed he raised the shoe towards her, and said, "A princess should always drink champagne out of a glass slipper."

Hughes said they started watching television and he allegedly tried to hold her hand. The last thing she remembered, she claimed, was waking up around 5:15 p.m. Her clothes were all over the room and she "felt semen on the small of my back and all over me," she claimed.

"It was disgusting," she said. "Bill obviously did not use a condom and there was no lunch and Bill was nowhere to be seen. I was confused and ashamed and never told anyone about what happened to me."

Linda Ridgeway Whitedeer told reporters that at the time of her alleged assault she was the recently divorced wife of Fred Apollo, a vice president and department head of live TV for the William Morris Agency, and who worked closely with the comedian. The former actress, who starred in 1972's The Mechanic with Charles Bronson, claimed she met Cosby on a movie set around 1971. She claimed Cosby told her she was there to be interviewed and then allegedly lured her into the director's office.

Once inside, Cosby exposed himself, grabbed her head and shoved his penis in her mouth, Whitedeer alleged.

"His attack was fast with surgical precision and surprise on his side," she claimed. "When Cosby was done there was a horrible mess of semen all over my face, my clothes and in my hair."

Whitedeer said she wanted to go straight to William Morris Agency but changed her mind because she didn't want to embarrass her ex-husband. "An actress is like a tennis player," she said at the press conference. "Her integrity and confidence are everything. For me, Bill Cosby was a career-killer."

The third alleged victim, Eden Tiri, said she was a 22-year-old actress when she was given a part playing a cop on The Cosby Show in 1989. While working on the set in front of hundreds of people, she alleged she was led off set to Cosby's dressing room twice but he wasn't there. The third time, Cosby was allegedly waiting for her. Inside the dressing room, she alleged Cosby wrapped his arms around her and whispered in her ear, "See that's all we were going to do, make love. This is making love. He turned me around, hugged me and I left without saying a word."

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10/6/2015

Bill Cosby's troubles got worse Tuesday when a woman sued him in a Los Angeles federal court, alleging the legendary comedian sexually assaulted her at the Playboy Mansion in 2008.

The civil suit by Chloe Goins comes as L.A. County prosecutors are already reviewing a criminal investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department into the 25-year-old model's allegations.

LAPD detectives presented the findings of their investigation last week to the district attorney’s office, which is reviewing the work.

Goins, speaking outside LAPD headquarters, said of the dozens of women who have accused Cosby of sexually assaulting them, she is one of the few who can bring Cosby to justice.

"Your experience is just like mine, and mine just like yours. We are not alone," she said. "This has been going on long enough. It is time Bill Cosby was held accountable for his actions."

In the lawsuit filed Tuesday, Goins' lawyers named 40 other women across the nation who have alleged they were sexually assaulted, molested or subject to misconduct by Cosby over the decades. Most went public in the last year.

Goins alleges that during a party at the Playboy Mansion in Holmby Hills in 2008, Cosby gave her a drink that caused her to black out. When she awoke, she found herself naked on a bed with Cosby biting her toes and his pants around his ankles and masturbating, according to her attorney, Spencer Kuvin.

"With this lawsuit, we are demanding Bill Cosby face the same justice as any other sexual predator," Kuvin said.

The attorney said his client was a teenager at the time of the alleged incident, which he would only say was in 2008. Goins was born in May 1990.

In January, Goins was interviewed for 2½ hours by an LAPD detective, according to her lawyer. Cosby’s attorneys have denied the accusations and insisted he was not at the party.

Goins' statement that she was given a drink and blacked out is similar to many of the statements of other alleged Cosby victims. The comedian said in a deposition a decade ago that he obtained Quaaludes for the purpose of giving to women before sex.

The lawsuit comes as attorney Gloria Allred is slated to depose Cosby in a lawsuit by Judy Huth, who alleges he sexually assaulted her in 1974.

Earlier this year, the district attorney rejected charging the comedian based on Huth's allegation because the alleged incident was too long ago.

Under California law, the legal deadline for prosecuting most rape cases involving an adult victim is 10 years. In most other adult sex-crime cases -- including the type Goins is alleging -- the statute of limitations is generally six years, according to Laurie Levenson, a Loyola law professor and former prosecutor. That would place Goins’ case outside the time allowed for prosecution.


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