Cosby gets new team; retrial set for ’18
NORRISTOWN, Pa. — Bill Cosby’s retrial on sexual-assault charges will be delayed until next year as his new legal team gets up to speed on the case, which pits the 80-year-old comedian against a woman who says he drugged and molested her more than a decade ago.
On Tuesday, Judge Steven O’Neill granted a defense request to postpone the retrial, which had been scheduled to start in November, saying there’s no way that Cosby’s lawyers would be ready by then.
Cosby’s first trial ended without a verdict after the jury deadlocked, setting the stage for a retrial.
The attorneys who represented Cosby at that trial, Brian McMonagle and Angela Agrusa, shook hands with Cosby and his new legal team, which includes Tom Mesereau, a high-profile attorney who told TMZ last month that the case against Cosby was “weak” and that retrying him was “a waste of time.”
DNA doubts put off Missouri execution
ST. LOUIS — Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens on Tuesday halted the scheduled execution of inmate Marcellus Williams after DNA testing raised questions about whether he was a killer.
Just hours before Williams was to be put to death, the Republican governor said in an email that he was issuing a stay of execution. Williams was convicted of fatally stabbing former St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Lisha Gayle during a 1998 burglary at her suburban St. Louis home. Williams’ execution had been scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday.
“To carry out the death penalty, the people of Missouri must have confidence in the judgment of guilt,” Greitens said.
The governor’s decision comes after Williams’ attorneys cited DNA evidence found on the murder weapon that matched an unknown person but not Williams. But St. Louis County prosecutor Bob McCulloch said in an interview Tuesday that the DNA tests “were inconclusive” and “can neither include or exclude” Williams as the killer.
Greitens said he will appoint a five-member board of inquiry made up of retired judges with subpoena power. The board will make a recommendation to the governor on whether Williams, 48, should be executed.
Train crash at station injures commuters
UPPER DARBY, Pa. — A commuter train crashed into a parked train at a suburban Philadelphia terminal early Tuesday, injuring dozens of passengers and the train’s operator, a transit spokesman said.
None of the 42 injured people were at risk of dying, said Heather Redfern, spokesman for the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority. “Some were considered walking wounded,” she said.
An inbound Norristown High Speed train crashed into an unoccupied train at the 69th Street Terminal in Upper Darby around 12:15 a.m.
National Transportation Safety Board officials were at the scene.
A passenger, Raymond Woodard, told WPVI-TV that he was riding home from work on the train when it crashed.
“And I looked up, and I saw that we’re at 69th Street and said, ‘Why are we going so fast?’” he said. “And then we just hit the train. Boom! I fell out of my chair, glass from the window shattered.”
Rain slams 2 states; driver dies in water
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Authorities blamed flash-flooding Tuesday for the death of a man whose car was swept away by a torrent linked to thunderstorms that pummeled portions of Kansas and Missouri, prompting numerous rescues of stranded motorists and others who scrambled to safety atop a roof and tree.
Sheriff’s officials in Kansas’ Miami County say the body of Robert Schoenhals, 56, was found about 2 ½ hours after a deputy reported seeing Schoenhals try to drive through high water on a highway and hydroplane into a ditch with deep, rushing water.
Schoenhals’ car was found about 45 minutes later, roughly 150 yards from where it left the road. The man’s body was found about 7:20 a.m., about 75 yards from his vehicle.
To the northeast in Kansas City, police and fire departments reported receiving more than 130 calls for water rescues during the storms, with dozens of others fielded in the suburbs.
As much as 9 inches of rain fell on one city neighborhood. A large area of the region saw 4 to 6 inches of rain.