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A sex abuse lawsuit against Bassnectar will not go to trial. On Tuesday, the case against the music producer, born Lorin Ashton, was dismissed with prejudice after he reached a private settlement with three women who had accused Bassnectar of sexually abusing them when they were underage.

“I am relieved to be able to put this behind me once and for all,” Ashton said in a statement. “To be clear, I did not engage in any of the wrongdoing of which I was accused. I have never abused or assaulted anyone in any way,...

During the prosecution’s closing arguments in Bill Cosby’s retrial on Tuesday, Cosby was seen laughing and smiling so much during statements by prosecutor Kristen Feden that she interrupted herself to exclaim, “He’s laughing like it’s funny! But there’s absolutely nothing funny about stripping a woman of her capacity to consent.”

Feden spared nothing in her half of the prosecution’s closing arguments, walking right over to the comedian in the courtroom, pointing at him and stating, “This man sitting right here. This is the man who artfully assaulted [Cosby accuser Andrea] Constand in such a way … that she had no idea about.”

Feden told the jury that Cosby “penetrated [Constand’s] vagina with his finger repeatedly, touched her breasts, and used her hand to manipulate his penis.” She also repeated that the case is “about trust. It’s about betrayal. And it’s about the inability to consent.” She tore into Cosby’s lawyers for attacking the character of six victims and Constand’s mother, telling the court, “Instead of asking what happened and trying to get to the bottom of what happened, they were asking, ‘What were you wearing? You got a drug history?'”

Prosecutor Stewart Ryan followed Feden with the prosecution’s conclusion, connecting dots such as, “Why would you need to explain anything about a consensual sexual encounter?” and “Why do you care if you’re being recorded if you just gave someone Benadryl?” He addressed many of the defense’s biggest talking points, particularly the lack of forensic evidence.

Also Read: Bill Cosby Retrial: Comedian's Attorney Shreds 'Pathological Liar' Andrea Constand During Closing Arguments

“Let’s think about what that forensic evidence would be,” Ryan told the jury. “Fibers from the victim’s clothing on the couch or a hair from her, proving she was in his home? A cotton swab from inside her vagina proving his DNA was in there? But all of those are things the defendant himself has said happened, from his own mouth.”

Jury deliberations are expected to begin on Wednesday.

Cosby is being re-tried on three counts of aggravated indecent assault, stemming from former Temple University employee Andrea Constand’s accusation that the comedian molested her in 2004 at his home outside of Philadelphia.

Also Read: Judith Regan Blasts 'Derogatory Slur' From Cosby Rep

Cosby’s initial trial in the matter ended in a mistrial in July 2017 after the jury was unable to reach a verdict following five days of deliberations.

Read original story Bill Cosby Retrial: Prosecutor Calls Out Comedian for ‘Laughing’ During Closing Arguments At TheWrap...

On a day when only expert witnesses testified in Bill Cosby’s retrial, prosecutor Stewart Ryan thoroughly grilled the defense’s toxicology expert Dr. Harry Milman on Thursday. But Dr. Milman’s knowledge of the forensic side of toxicology seemed only tangential, as he at one point cited a Viagra-using perpetrator as an instance of “drug-induced sexual assault.”

Ryan was able to coax admissions out of Milman such as that he’s currently unlicensed, except for a “driver’s license,” Milman joked, and that he has only written three articles for publication regarding his toxicological studies that weren’t about cancer.

Milman has, however, written two fiction books — oddly enough, about a forensic toxicologist who is called as an expert witness.

Also Read: Bill Cosby Legal Team's Bid for a Mistrial Once Again Denied

In what was probably Ryan’s most merciless cross-examination of the retrial thus far, he continually put Milman at a stammering loss for words regarding his own credentials and explanations of why he testified that Benadryl wasn’t a hypnotic, even though one of his very own citations included a sentence about how new studies are emerging that Benadryl’s active ingredient, diphenhydramine, is in fact being used as a hypnotic.

Citing that Quaaludes, a drug that Cosby admitted to administering to women for sex in the past, had become illegal by 1984, Milman also seemed bewildered when confronted with the fact that prosecutor Kevin Steele’s own office seized “thousands” of illegally manufactured Quaalude pills in a local 2002 case.

Earlier Thursday, Cosby’s defense team’s motion for a mistrial — the team’s fifth such attempt — was denied. Cosby’s team contended that the prosecution’s cross-examination of their witness, Marguerite Jackson, “tainted” the jury by implying that the comedian’s lawyers had “created” her statement.

Also Read: Bill Cosby Retrial: Defense Team's Star Witness Testifies After Being Blocked in First Trial

Judge Steven T. O’Neill struck down the motion as having “simply no grounds for a mistrial” and being raised too late. He also scolded the defense for having just one witness ready for the day — the same day the court would hear testimony from the prosecution’s final witness. Both will be called to testify as expert witnesses.

Cosby is being re-tried on three counts of aggravated indecent assault, stemming from former Temple University employee Andrea Constand’s accusation that the comedian molested her in 2004 at his home outside of Philadelphia.

Cosby’s initial trial in the matter ended in a mistrial in July 2017 after the jury was unable to reach a verdict following five days of deliberations.

Read original story Bill Cosby Retrial: Comedian’s Expert Witness Jokes He’s Unlicensed, Except for His ‘Driver’s License’ At TheWrap...

The legal team for Bill Cosby made their fifth motion for a mistrial Thursday morning, saying that the prosecution’s cross-examination of their witness, Marguerite Jackson, “tainted” the jury by implying that the comedian’s lawyers had “created” her statement.

Judge Steven T. O’Neill struck down the motion as having “simply no grounds for a mistrial” and being raised too late. He also scolded the defense on only having one witness ready for the day, which will feature the testimony of the prosecution’s final witness as well. Both will be called to testify as expert witnesses.

On Wednesday, Jackson, a former fellow employee of Temple University alongside Cosby accuser Andrea Constand, told the court that she once shared a hotel room with Constand during one of the women’s basketball team’s away game nights in Rhode Island, where a news report on a celebrity accused of assault prompted Constand to tell Jackson that a “high-profile person” once assaulted her.

Also Read: Bill Cosby Retrial: Defense Team's Star Witness Testifies After Being Blocked in First Trial

Jackson continued, “I said, ‘Did this really happen to you?’ and [Constand] said ‘no, no it didn’t. But I could say it happened, get that money. I could quit my job, go back to school.'”

The cross-examination from prosecutor Stewart Ryan hinged largely on the amendments between Jackson’s initial statement and her second one, which was revised with Cosby’s legal team.

Constand herself had testified in the past week that she did not remember a Marguerite Jackson but that the name “Margo” rang a bell.

Also Read: Bill Cosby Retrial: Jurors Hear Comedian's Testimony About Quaaludes and Sex

Cosby is being re-tried on three counts of aggravated indecent assault, stemming from Constand’s accusation that the comedian molested her in 2004 at his home outside of Philadelphia.

Cosby’s initial trial in the matter ended in a mistrial in July 2017 after the jury was unable to reach a verdict following five days of deliberations.

Read original story Bill Cosby Legal Team’s Bid for a Mistrial Once Again Denied At TheWrap...

Marguerite Jackson, a former fellow employee of Temple University alongside Bill Cosby’s accuser Andrea Constand, was permitted to testify for the defense on Wednesday during the comedian’s retrial, after her testimony was blocked from the original 2017 trial.

Jackson told the court that she once shared a hotel room with Constand during one of the women’s basketball team’s away game nights in Rhode Island, where a news report on a celebrity accused of assault prompted Constand to tell Jackson that a “high-profile person” once assaulted her.

“I said, ‘really? Who, when?'” testified Jackson. “‘Did you report it?’ She said, ‘I couldn’t prove it.'”

Also Read: Bill Cosby Retrial: Jurors Hear Comedian's Testimony About Quaaludes and Sex

Jackson continued, “I said, ‘Did this really happen to you?’ and [Constand] said ‘no, no it didn’t. But I could say it happened, get that money. I could quit my job, go back to school.'”

Prior to the current criminal proceedings, Constand sued Cosby over her accusations, eventually settling the suit for an amount that was revealed at the current retrial to be just under $3.4 million.

The cross-examination from prosecutor Stewart Ryan hinged largely on the amendments between Jackson’s initial statement and her second one, which was revised with Cosby’s legal team. Particularly at issue was a discrepancy between whether Jackson registered “surprise” at learning of Constand’s accusation against Cosby in 2005 or in 2016, when she was allegedly on a cruise ship discussing the Cosby allegations with another comedian she met, who bought her a drink and reportedly joked, “I didn’t put anything in it.”

Also Read: Cosby Retrial: Police Officer Pushes Back at Comedian's Lawyer Over Accuser 'Inconsistencies'

Andrea Constand herself had testified in the past week that she did not remember a Marguerite Jackson but that the name “Margo” rang a bell.

Cosby is being re-tried on three counts of aggravated indecent assault, stemming from Constand’s accusation that the comedian molested her in 2004 at his home outside of Philadelphia.

Cosby’s initial trial in the matter ended in a mistrial in July 2017 after the jury was unable to reach a verdict following five days of deliberations.

Also Read: Cosby Accuser's Mother Says Comedian Told Her, 'Don't Worry Mom, There Was No Penile Penetration'

Earlier Wednesday, the jury heard the comedian’s previous testimony regarding Quaaludes and sex.

In a transcript from Cosby’s deposition stemming from Constand’s civil suit against him, the comedian said he obtained Quaaludes because, at the time, they were a drug that young people were partying with, “and there were times that I wanted to have them just in case.”

When asked if he knew he was going to give the Quaaludes to women he wanted to have sex with when he obtained them, Cosby answered, “Yes.”

On Wednesday, the court also heard testimony from Judith Regan, whose Regan Books published model Janice Dickinson’s memoir “No Lifeguard on Duty.”

While being questioned, Regan said that Dickinson, who testified earlier in the retrial, said that Cosby had drugged and raped her, and that she wanted to include the alleged incident in the book.

Saying that the accusation could not be included in the book without corroboration for legal reasons, Regan told the court that Dickinson was “very unhappy” that it wasn’t included in the memoir.

Read original story Bill Cosby Retrial: Defense Team’s Star Witness Testifies After Being Blocked in First Trial At TheWrap...

Temple University academic advisor Marguerite Jackson became the star witness for Bill Cosby after a random encounter on a cruise ship. Jackson, who was traveling with her sister and cousin in November 2016, was at the bar when a comedian who had just been onstage offered to buy her a drink. She said he added, “I won’t put anything in it.”

“Then we got into this whole conversation about Bill Cosby, and I told him I worked at Temple and I knew Andrea Constand and she said it didn’t happen,” Jackson testified today in Cosby’s sexual assault retrial. “He said, ‘I’ll put you in touch with the Cosby team.’ ”

Jackson this afternoon shared with jurors at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pa the story of how she claims Constand told her during a 2004 road trip with the Temple basketball team that the assault “didn’t happen,...

Updated with first defense witness called: The prosecution in the Bill Cosby sexual assault trial is “partially resting” its case after eight days of proceedings at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pa. Judge Steven O’Neill told the jurors the Commonwealth was closing its case aside from a toxicology expert witness who will not be available until Thursday.

Cosby attorney Tom Mesereau said he plans to present a defense, and Cosby affirmed knowledge of his attorneys’ strategy to O’Neill. But Cosby’s defense team has another plan, too, with lawyer Kathleen Bliss saying she would motion for an acquittal after the toxicology witness testifies.

The defense called its first witness, Pamela Gray-Young, before lunch. Gray-Young worked with Constand at Temple University while both worked for the women’s basketball team and testified that Constand would’ve roomed with academic advisor Marguerite Jackson during road trips. Constand has said...