Bill Cosby accuser Andrea Constand slams star’s release and warns it could stop sex assault victims from speaking out
THE accuser in Bill Cosby's criminal trial has spoken out against his overturned sexual assault conviction.
Andrea Constand told TMZ that she thought the star's release could discourage sexual assault victims from seeking justice through the courts in the future.
Constand had previously testified in court that 83-year-old Cosby had given her three blue pills and then sexually assaulted her.
Constand and her team added that they were never aware of any agreement between Cosby and the former prosecutor that would grant him immunity.
Three other women who have accused Cosby – Sammie Mays, Sarita Butterfield and Angela Leslie – also about the comedian's release on Wednesday, saying that they, too, think he's dangerous.
While more than 50 other women across the U.S. have accused Cosby of sexual assault and misconduct, statues of limitations in their cases make further prosecution unlikely.
And then ten years later, these documents were unsealed and prosecutors used them in the case against him just days before the 12-year statute of limitations expired in 2015.
However, the supreme court found that district attorney Kevin Steele, who made the decision to arrest Cosby, should have stood by his predecessor's agreement over the civil case.
The court called Cosby’s subsequent arrest “an affront to fundamental fairness, particularly when it results in a criminal prosecution that was forgone for more than a decade.”
READ MORE SUN STORIES
It said justice and “fair play and decency” require that the district attorney’s office stand by the decision of the previous DA.
Castor acknowledged the only place the agreement was put in writing was a 2005 press release announcing his decision not to prosecute.