Janice Dickinson to Testify In Bill Cosby Sexual Assault Retrial
Janice Dickinson will be called to testify at Bill Cosby's retrial, which is scheduled to commence on April 2.
ET has learned that the 63-year-old model is among a group of five additional accusers who the prosecution will be calling to the stand to testify against Cosby, who is accused of drugging and sexually assaulting a woman at his home in Pennsylvania in 2004. Cosby has consistently denied all allegations against him.
According to multiple reports, Dickinson and the four other witnesses will give testimony regarding their own accusations which they've leveled against the 80-year-old comedian.
Cosby's lawyers reportedly tried to overturn Judge Steven O'Neill's decision to allow the women to testify during the retrial, but were unsuccessful.
Prosecutors fought to get the presiding judge to allow the so-called "prior bad acts" witnesses to take the stand, claiming that their allegations are pertinent given how closely they resemble the claims made by the alleged victim in the criminal hearing, Andrea Constand.
Cosby pled not guilty to the charges against him before his first trial last year. On June 17, 2017, Judge O'Neill declared a mistrial after jurors said they were deadlocked after five days of deliberations.
The Montgomery County District Attorney's office said at the time that they would begin the process to retry the case immediately.
Dickinson -- who is one of more than 50 women who have come out with allegations of sexual misconduct and sexual assault against Cosby over the last four years -- claims that the comedian convinced her to travel to Lake Tahoe to have dinner and discuss a possible job opportunity in 1982. After the dinner, she alleges that he gave her a pill to help with menstrual cramps.
"The next morning, I woke up and I wasn't wearing my pajamas, and I remember before I passed out that I had been sexually assaulted by this man," Dickinson claimed in an interview with ET in November 2014. "Before I woke up in the morning, the last thing I remember was Bill Cosby in a patchwork robe, dropping his robe and getting on top of me. And I remember a lot of pain."
Dickinson further claims that she tried to write about the alleged assault in her 2002 autobiography No Lifeguard on Duty: The Accidental Life of the World's First Supermodel, but claims that when she submitted a draft with her full story to HarperCollins, Cosby and his lawyers pressured her and the publisher to remove the details.
Cosby's lawyer, Marty Singer -- with whom the performer has since parted ways -- issued a statement to ET at the time, denying Dickinson's claims in full.
"Janice Dickinson's story accusing Bill Cosby of rape is a lie," Singer stated, in part. "The only story she gave 12 years ago to the media and in her autobiography was that she refused to sleep with Mr. Cosby and he blew her off. Documentary proof and Ms. Dickinson's own words show that her new story about something she now claims happened back in 1982 is a fabricated lie."
In response to Singer's refutation of her allegations, Dickinson filed a defamation lawsuit against both Cosby and his former attorney, claiming they attempted to brand her a liar and discredit her. Singer was later dismissed from the suit by the judge, however Cosby was not. The lawsuit has yet to be resolved.
For more on Cosby's original trial, and the jury's heated deliberations, watch the video below.
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