NORRISTOWN, Pennsylvania—As jury selection got underway for Bill Cosby’s retrial Monday, The Daily Beast learned who will testify publicly that the comedian drugged and sexually assaulted them.
Cosby 80, is accused by Montgomery County prosecutors of doing that to Andrea Constand at his Philadelphia-area mansion in 2004. Last year, a mistrial was declared after jurors were unable to come to a unanimous decision about his guilt.
In addition to Constand, Judge Steven O’Neill ruled that five additional accusers could testify at the criminal trial but left which ones up to the discretion of the prosecutor, saying only that he had choose from the eight most recent allegations. Last month, Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele sent a letter to O’Neill saying he intended to call accusers 12, 13, 15, 17, and 18 to testify.
The Daily Beast has identified the women by cross referencing details of their accounts from motions filed by prosecutors with public statements they have made.
Prosecutors declined to comment on the list. Cosby, 80, has denied allegations by the women.
Janice Baker Kinney
Kinney was 24 years old and Cosby was 45 in 1982 when she says she met Cosby while working as a bartender at Harrah’s in Reno, Nevada. Cosby, who was in town for a show at Harrah’s, invited her to a get together he was hosting, she said. Because of his fame and status, she trusted him, she told authorities.
When she got to the house where he was supposedly hosting the party, only Cosby was there, she said. He offered her some pills. After she took one, he insisted that she take another, he said. She did so because she trusted him, she said. Almost immediately, “she became disoriented, her vision became blurry and she felt ‘fuzzy’ and ‘woozy’ and within minutes she was unconscious and he sexually assaulted her,” prosecutors wrote in a motion.
Janice Dickinson
Dickinson, a supermodel, said she first met Cosby in 1982 through her employment as a model. She was 27 and he was 45. In the weeks following their introduction, Dickinson said they formed what she believed to be a sincere friendship with him as he mentored her and gave her career guidance. He never once made a sexual advance on her, she said, so when he invited her to his hotel room in Lake Tahoe that same year after they’d been out to dinner together, supposedly to discuss her career, she said she had no reason to distrust him.
Dickson said Cosby gave her a pill at dinner when she said she had stomach pain and said she was unconscious shortly after arriving at his hotel room. She said woke the next morning in her own hotel room with no idea how she’d gotten there and no memory of what happened with Cosby but certain he had sex with her “because of the semen between her legs and the pain in her anal area,” according to prosecutors.
Heidi Thomas
Thomas was an aspiring actress but working as a model when she met Cosby in April 1984 through her employment as a model. She was 24 and he was 46. Her agency had contacted her and said he was interested in mentoring her. By the time she actually met him, Thomas said Cosby already ingratiated himself with her parents.
Cosby invited Thomas to see his show in Reno, she said, then had his driver pick her up at the airport and take her to a house nearby. Once there, Thomas said, he told her to perform various acting roles, including that of an intoxicated person, and gave her a glass of white wine as a prop and told her to sip on it, she told authorities. After drinking some of it “she became incapacitated,” according to prosecutors. While in and out of consciousness, prosecutors said she recalled waking up naked in bed with him “forcing his penis into her mouth.”
Chelan Lasha
Lasha was a model and an aspiring actress when she says she first met Cosby in 1986 at the Las Vegas Hilton. She was 17 and he was 48. She says he invited her to his hotel room under the guise of introducing her to a representative from the Ford Modeling Agency. When she got there she told Cosby she had a cold and he handed her what he said was an antihistamine, Lasha said.
Cosby allegedly told her to change into a robe because a modeling representative was going to take some photos. After someone arrived and took photos, Lashsa said Cosby led her into the bedroom and “instructed her to lie down on the bed to help with her cold,” according to a motion filed by the prosecution. Cosby then sexually assaulted her while she was unable to “move, speak or open her eyes,” she told authorities.
Lisa Lotte-Lublin
Lotte-Lublin was a model and aspiring actress in 1989 when she first met Cosby through her agency. She was 23 and he was 57. Over the next couple of years he mentored her with career advice and guidance, Lotte-Lublin said. Cosby also attempted to ingratiate himself with her family, she said. One night he invited Lotte-Lublin to his room at the Las Vegas Hilton to discuss her career goals.
When she arrived, Cosby gave her a drink and told her it would help her relax, repeatedly insisting that she drink it, she said. Cosby then offered her another, which she said she refused because she was already feeling “woozy,” only to consume it after he insisted. Lotte-Lublin quickly became incapacitated, drifting in and out of consciousness, while she believes Cosby sexually assaulted her, she told authorities. The next thing she remembered was waking up two days later at her home, she said.
Shortly before noon on Monday, Judge O’Neill began asking a series of questions to a pool of 120 potential jurors. When he asked if any had heard of the #MeToo movement and sexual misconduct allegations against those in the entertainment industry, all but one raised their hands; all but ten said they had heard of the criminal allegations against Cosby. Those chosen will be sequestered in a local hotel for the duration of the trial, which is expected to last a month.
