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Bill Cosby’s 2018 sexual assault conviction may have been overturned on “a legal technicality,” claims Janice Baker-Kinney, but “he is not innocent.”
Baker-Kinney is one of the 60 women who accused the 83-year-old comedian of sexually assaulting them over his decades-long career.
“He’ll never be innocent,” Baker-Kinney said on “CBS This Morning” Thursday.
Cosby walked free Wednesday afternoon after a Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned his 2018 conviction. The court ruled that Cosby had been denied a fair trial when he was found guilty of drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand in 2004, citing a non-prosecution agreement Cosby made during a 2005 civil suit brought by Constand. As part of the agreement, Cosby was assured he would not face criminal prosecution if he gave a deposition in the civil case.
Baker-Kinney testified in the 2018 trial that she met Cosby in 1982 in Reno, Nevada. She said she was 24 when a co-worker invited her to a pizza party the star was hosting, which wound up only including Baker-Kinney, her co-worker and Cosby.
She said he offered her quaaludes which she took, and later woke up naked in bed with Cosby, alleging he had sexually assaulted her.
Baker-Kinney told “CBS This Morning” that she does not regret coming forward, even now.
“I encourage everyone to speak their truth because it’s cathartic, it’s empowering, I feel stronger than I ever did before,” she said.
Read her full interview alongside her lawyer, Gloria Allred, who represents a number of sexual assault survivors, below:
“CBS This Morning” co-host Gayle King: Good morning to you both. Janice, I want to start with you because last night it was reported that you were processing this latest turn of events. What’s your reaction today, and how are you feeling?
Janice Baker-Kinney: Well, good morning, Gayle. I’m still processing everything that’s going on, and I just need to remember now — it’s almost like mantra for me — that he was released on a legal technicality and not because he’s innocent. He is not innocent. He’ll never be innocent, and I need to hold on to that.
King: So what would justice look like to you now? Because he is claiming that he is innocent. He’s claiming that justice has been served.
Baker-Kinney: He’s going to always claim he was innocent. That story has never changed. But the 60-plus women that have come forward, we all know the truth. So his legacy, his — will never be what it used to be. So a little bit of justice served there. He did serve two years. A little bit of justice in the fact that he is a disgraced former “America’s dad.” And I can live with that.
“CBS This Morning” co-host Anthony Mason: Gloria, it’s Anthony. In your view, is this decision a setback to the Me Too movement?
Gloria Allred: No, Anthony, I don’t think it is at all. There are many women who continue to come forward. Many persons who allege that they are victims — for example of R. Kelly, of Harvey Weinstein in Los Angeles — nine of many other figures. Women are now empowered in a way they never were before. Janice was very brave when she testified. I’m so proud of her.
And it is, you know, a shock But it’s also very clear that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court did not make a decision that Mr. Cosby did not do what he was accused of doing. It was based on a legal technicality, on issues of due process, and it was not based on the merits and the evidence as to whether he did it or not. Actually to the contrary, the court talked about the statements that Mr. Cosby made in the deposition, in the civil lawsuit brought by Andrea Constand, and called those statements incriminating.
Mason: Gloria, you represent an accuser in California who’s filed a civil case against Bill Cosby. Does this decision affect that case in any way?
Allred: It does, actually, because now that he is a free man, now that he cannot be retried, he cannot claim or invoke his fifth amendment privilege against incrimination and decline to testify.
In our civil lawsuit — which alleges that our client, Judy Huff, was victimized, was a victim of child sexual abuse by Mr. Cosby at the Playboy Mansion — we have an order compelling him to sit for a second deposition, first is under seal. In this second deposition, which we intend to take prior to trial, we intend to ask him many, many questions under oath. He is going to be compelled to answer them because he can’t invoke his fifth amendment privilege against self-incrimination.
“CBS This Morning” co-host Tony Dokoupil: Hey Janice, it’s Tony Dokoupil. It takes a toll on a person to come forward in a case like this. It takes a toll on a person to testify at trial. I’m curious, knowing what you know now about the outcome, would you still go back and take the stand, and what would you say to other women who maybe hesitating in different cases right now?
Baker-Kinney: Well, I would go back in a New York minute. Coming forward actually was empowering, and it gave me strength to speak out. And it also gave me — I received so much support, that it’s kind of like a pay-it-forward thing. I have — I just want to help other people and not let this — him being released from jail — not to discourage other women or men from coming forward. I have no problem speaking my truth, and I encourage everyone to speak their truth because it’s cathartic, it’s empowering, I feel stronger than I ever did before, and it’s because of the support of all the survivor sisters. We’re this loving group that will reach out to anyone to help them come forward like many of us did.
King: Janice Baker-Kinney and Gloria Allred, we thank you both for your time this morning.
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