April 26, 2018
VOL. 31, No. 63
BILL COSBY’S FATE: IN THE JURY’S HANDS By Eric Levenson and Aaron Cooper, CNN
The jury in Bill Cosby’s indecent assault trial asked a question Wednesday that goes to the heart of the case against the former TV icon: “What is the legal definition of consent?” The question came around 1 p.m., yesterday, less than two hours after the 12-person jury began deliberating the
case. Cosby is on trial for three counts of aggravated indecent assault. Montgomery County court Judge Steven O’Neill told the jurors that he could not answer the question. “The jury will decide what consent means to them,” he said. The case against Cosby centers on testimony from Andrea Constand, a former employee with Temple University women’s basketball team. She testified that Cosby, a powerful trustee at Temple, drugged her and sexually assaulted her when she visited his home to ask for career advice in a Philadelphia suburb in January 2004. Cosby’s defense team has argued that
their interaction was consensual. Constand is a con artist, they argued, who wanted a piece of Cosby’s fortune. The case is the first celebrity sexual assault trial since the #MeToo movement began last fall, and as such, it represents a test of how the cultural movement will translate into a courtroom arena. In closing arguments, defense attorney Kathleen Bliss positioned Cosby’s legal team as standing up against “witch hunts, lynchings (and) McCarthyism.” Last year, a different jury could not come to a unanimous verdict on any of these three charges for Cosby, leading Judge O’Neill to declare a mistrial. The Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, jury is made up of seven men and five women and they have been sequestered in a hotel during the trial’s two weeks of testimony. One man and one woman are African American, and the rest appear to be white. Cosby, 80, faces up to 10 years in prison on each count if convicted. The case has little forensic evidence and has largely consisted of the “he saidshe said” arguments so common to sex-
ual assault cases. Constand testified that Cosby offered her wine and three blue pills, saying, “these are your friends, they will take the edge off.” She began to slur her words and feel woozy, she testified, and then became unable to move. What we’ve learned as Bill Cosby’s trial pushes to its finale “The next thing I recall is, um, I was kind of jolted awake, and felt Mr. Cosby on the couch beside me, behind me, and my vagina was being penetrated quite forcefully,” Constand testified. “I felt my breasts being touched, and he took my hand and placed my hand on his penis and masturbated himself with my hand. And I was not able to do a thing to fight back.” Cosby did not testify in his own defense during the trial, but he said in a 2005-2006 civil deposition with Constand that their sexual activity was consensual. His defense attorneys have sharply criticized Constand in an attempt to under-
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GENTRIFICATION? HERE COMES THE NEIGHBORHOOD By Francis Taylor, Assistant Editor
With the exciting construction of the new Los Angeles Rams stadium and development emerging from underground on Prairie Ave., the anticipation of the Los Angeles Clippers’ new basketball arena, Inglewood Mayor James T. Butts’ seizing every opportunity to espouse
the quality living and visionary leadership he and his city council colleagues are delivering that contributes to Inglewood’s economic growth and viability, to list only a few examples of the city’s rapid transformation, many residents are fearful that gentrification may displace them while more optimistic residents are more welcoming. Critics site the alleged use of city funds to enrich the wealthy team owners. They cite the dramatic increase in property values and rents. They question the number of local residents that are involved in the new construction and they predict impending traffic gridlock when the developments are completed. At the same time, many residents are concerned that the process of renovating and improving Inglewood will have the affect of conforming the city to middleclass taste. With 59,4 percent of the people in Inglewood living in rental hous-
ing units and 22.4 percent of the population living below the federal poverty line, it is reasonable that they are concerned about Inglewood’s move to a more middle class community. In the 1960’s white flight occurred in the more desirable Inglewood neighborhoods and over the years, the city was well known for its majority black population. Also, during more recent years, Hispanics have emerged as the dominant minority group in Inglewood. A recent report indicated that the population of Inglewood is 50.3 percent Hispanic, 41.9 percent black and 3.68 percent white. The median price of a home in In-
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glewood is sometimes as much as 50 percent less than the value of homes in non-minority dominant areas like Westchester, Venice, Santa Monica and others. This condition is likely to force wellheeled, home-buying bargain hunters, who wish to enjoy Inglewood’s proximity to freeways, the airport and the ocean, to seriously consider a move into Inglewood. Rental incomes in Inglewood, like those in neighboring communities, and throughout the state for that matter, are climbing rapidly. An Inglewood apartment owner reported that rent for a
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