Gilbert Carrasquillo/WireImageA judge denied on Wednesday a request by Bill Cosby's lawyers to declare another mistrial in his sexual assault case after a witness outburst.
Chelan Lasha had addressed the former Cosby Show star directly in court after testifying about his alleged molestation of her in 1986, saying, "You remember, don't you, Mr. Cosby?"
Cosby is on trial on charges of assaulting another woman, Andrea Constand, in 2004. He has denied any wrongdoing. Cosby's first trial on the case ended in a mistrial in 2017 after a deadlocked jury failed to reach a verdict. In his new trial, the judge is allowing Lasha and a few other accusers to testify against him as witnesses. More than 50 accusers have gone public in recent years.
On Wednesday, Lasha, a former model and aspiring actress, broke down sobbing while testifying during her cross-examination about an alleged encounter with Cosby. She accused him of assaulting her inside the Elvis Presley suite at the Las Vegas Hilton after rendering her immobile by giving her a pill he said was an antihistamine.
"He said he was going to help me with my modeling and take some pictures of me and we were talking about a new character on the Cosby Show," she testified. "I kept blowing my nose. He said, 'I have an antihistamine that will break up the cold' and he gave me a little blue pill."
She said he told her she should lay down and walked her to another room, after which he allegedly touched her breasts and humped her leg while she was unable to move. She said that he then told her to wake up and she saw that her shirt and shorts had been removed. She said Cosby told her to get dressed and that she was still unable to move.
"I said, 'Dr. Huxtable, you said you were going to help me, why are you doing this to me?'" she testified, using his Cosby Show character's name.
"I was a good girl and he took it all away," she said.
She said Cosby called her and cautioned her about "people who talk to much."
Just before the court's lunch break, Lasha turned to Cosby and said, "You remember, don't you, Mr. Cosby?" Murmurs was heard across the courtroom and she was admonished by the judge after the jury left the room. She then apologized to the court, after which Cosby's attorney requested a mistrial and was denied.
One of Cosby's attorneys, Jaya Gupta, said jurors should hear about Lasha's criminal past so they assess her credibility. She had pleaded guilty in 2007 to making a false report to Arizona law enforcement.
Lasha's lawyer, famed attorney Gloria Allred, said the defense was trying to smear her client.