CALIFORNIA, United States. A top prosecutor in southern California has declined to file criminal charges against Bill Cosby over two alleged sexual assault cases from 1965 and 2008.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office cited insufficient evidence and statute of limitations in DA Jackie Lacey’s decision to not pursue charges.
The first case involved a woman who claimed Cosby raped her in 1965 when she was 17 years old.
The second stemmed from an alleged sexual assault at the Playboy Mansion in 2008.
The alleged victim, now 24, told police she passed out after Cosby gave her something to drink, and that she was naked when she woke up and found Cosby biting her toes with his pants around his ankles, her attorney told the LA Times.
The decision to forgo charges in the two cases 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.
It was the first time criminal charges were brought against the 78-year-old comedian after more than 50 women came forward to claim he assaulted them.
Cosby remains free on $1m bail pending a trial.
He is facing a long list of legal problems, including defamation and sex abuse lawsuits filed in Boston, Los Angeles and Pennsylvania.
The Philadelphia-born comic, best known for playing a lovable family doctor in 1980s sitcom The Cosby Show, has denied all the allegations against him.
Credit: Sky News
