Actress/comedienne Whoopi Goldberg has told viewers of a daily chat show she is “glad” to see action taken over sexual assault accusations against her friend and fellow entertainer Bill Cosby.
Moderating on The View, a thinking man’s Loose Women insofar as it features a panel consisting solely of females, Goldberg said: “Look, I’m glad it’s happening, I sorta feel like, whenever you have people saying, ‘This is what happened, this is what happened, this is what happened,’ I want the court. I want to hear it. … I want everybody to be able to ask the questions. We’ve heard a lot, but we have not heard anything from his side.”
Cosby was charged with one count of aggravated indecent assault in connection to an alleged 2004 incident, shortly before the statute of limitations – a time limit beyond which charges for specified felonies cannot be brought – was to have run out. This marks the first criminal charge against Cosby, after more than 50 other women have accused him of drugging and/or sexually assaulting them prior to 2004. He has denied all wrongdoing.
Raven-Symoné, who played Cosby’s character Dr Cliff Huxtable’s step-granddaughter Olivia on The Cosby Show, admitted on Monday’s episode of The View that she “would like to watch” the progression of the case unfold on television. “This needs to be on TV, I think,” speculated co-host Joy Behar.
A preliminary hearing in Cosby’s case has been set for January 14. Cosby’s lawyer, Monique Pressley, has ruled out any possibility of accepting a plea deal.
“My client is not guilty,” Pressley said. “And there will be no consideration on our part of any sort of [plea] arrangement.”
Goldberg previously defended Cosby against the controversial allegations, but changed her tune in July. “It looks bad, Bill,” Goldberg noted in an interview with ABC News, adding, “Either speak up, or shut up, because people know now there’s a lot more out there than they thought.”
On New Year’s Eve, Cosby broke his post-arraignment silence with a simple message on Twitter. “Friends and fans, Thank You,” he wrote.
Earlier in December Cosby filed a countersuit against several of his accusers for defamation. He also filed a separate defamation lawsuit against supermodel Beverly Johnson, who made highly publicised claims that she “felt drugged” after sipping a cappuccino that Cosby allegedly offered her in the mid-1980s.
