Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Cosby spokesman: Tour ahead to educate youth on misbehavior

Cosby

Matt Rourke / AP

Bill Cosby exits the Montgomery County Courthouse after a mistrial in his sexual assault case in Norristown, Pa., Saturday, June 17, 2017. Cosby’s trial ended without a verdict after jurors failed to reach a unanimous decision.

LOS ANGELES — Bill Cosby will organize a series of town hall meetings to help educate young people about problems their misbehavior could create, a spokesman for Cosby said Thursday.

Cosby is eager to get back to work following a deadlocked jury and mistrial in his sexual assault trial, spokesman Andrew Wyatt told Birmingham, Alabama, TV station WBRC.

"We'll talk to young people. Because this is bigger than Bill Cosby. You know, this, this issue can affect any young person, especially young athletes of today," Wyatt said. "And they need to know what they're facing when they're hanging out and partying, when they're doing certain things they shouldn't be doing.

"And it also affects married men," Wyatt said, without elaborating.

"Is it kind of a, 'Do as I say, not as I do' situation?" the newscaster asked, but it was unclear if Wyatt heard and responded to the question.

Also taking part in the interview was Wyatt associate Ebonee Benson, who had read a statement from Cosby's wife, Camille, following the trial's inconclusive end last weekend in Norristown, Pennsylvania.

"Laws are changing," Benson said on Thursday. "The statute of limitations for victims of sexual assault are being extended. So this is why people need to be educated on a brush against the shoulder, you know anything at this point can be considered sexual assault. And it's ... it's a good thing to be educated about the law."

The tour will include Birmingham sometime in July, Wyatt said.

During the trial, Andrea Constand testified that Cosby drugged and molested her at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004. Cosby said the encounter with the former director of women's basketball operations at his alma mater, Temple University, was consensual.

A juror in Bill Cosby's sexual assault trial said Thursday that some jurors were concerned that prosecutors waited 10 years to charge him, expressing suspicion that politics had played a role in the case.

The juror told The Associated Press that the panel was almost evenly split in its deliberations, with a similar number of jurors wanting to convict the 79-year-old entertainer as acquit him.

Cosby, who faced three counts of aggravated indecent assault, will be retried, the prosecution has said.