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Gloria Allred to Bill Cosby: ‘Round 2 is coming’

Posted at 2:32 PM, Jun 17, 2017
and last updated 2017-06-17 14:32:12-04

“Round Two is coming.”

That’s the warning victim’s rights attorney Gloria Allred issued to Bill Cosby shortly after a Pennsylvania judge declared a mistrial Saturday in Cosby’s sexual offense case after the jury repeatedly failed to reach a verdict.

The trial centered around Andrea Constand, the former director of operations for Temple University’s women’s basketball team, who claimed she was drugged and sexually assaulted by Cosby in January 2004 at his home near Philadelphia. Cosby pleaded not guilty to three charges of aggravated indecent assault.

Prosecutors said they will retry the case.

“We can never underestimate the blinding power of celebrity, but justice will come,” Allred, who represents other women who have accused Cosby of similar attacks, told CNN’s Fredricka Whitfield.

The “big problem” with the trial was the inability of several other accusers to testify, Allred said.

“The prosecution wanted to call what we call 13 ‘prior bad act witnesses’ — in other words, other accusers,” she said. “Under Pennsylvania law, the court could have allowed more accusers to testify but declined to do so.”

Only one other accuser, Kelly Johnson, was allowed to testify as prosecutors sought to establish that Cosby had demonstrated a pattern of assault.

“Now that there’s going to be a new trial, I’m hoping that the court will allow more prior bad act witnesses, more accusers, to be able to testify so that the jury can take into consideration what their allegations are as well,” Allred said.

As for Cosby, she had another message for him.

“It’s way too early to celebrate, Mr. Cosby,” she said, adding that “justice may be just around the corner.”