NEWSMAKERS
NEWSMAKERS
Ex-DA expected to be key defense witness at Cosby hearing
PHILADELPHIA
An ex-prosecutor is expected to testify that he promised Bill Cosby would never be charged over a 2005 sex-assault complaint, but a judge must decide if that constitutes an immunity deal.
Then-prosecutor Bruce Castor will be a key witness for the defense at a Feb. 2 hearing over what Cosby’s lawyers have called a “non-prosecution agreement.”
The defense argues that prosecutors who charged Cosby last month unfairly used his deposition testimony from the accuser’s civil lawsuit against him. Castor supports their position.
But Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele, the prosecutor handling Cosby’s case, said there is no evidence of a signed immunity agreement. Cosby’s lawyers did not attach one to their recent motion to dismiss the case.
On Saturday, Andrea Constand’s lawyer said she never knew of such an agreement.
“He [Castor] said ... that he talked to us about it. That’s a lie,” lawyer Dolores Troiani said. “It never happened.”
Castor, in announcing that he wouldn’t charge Cosby in 2005, had warned both sides that he could revisit the decision.
Castor did not immediately return a call Saturday, after CNN reported that he sent an email to his successor last fall explaining the agreement with Cosby’s attorneys.
Celine Dion’s brother dies 2 days after her husband’s death
MONTREAL
Daniel Dion, the older brother of pop singer Celine Dion, died Saturday, just two days after the death of the entertainer’s husband, Rene Angelil, from throat cancer.
Celine Dion’s representative Kim Jakwerth released a statement that Daniel Dion, 59, died Saturday surrounded by his family after battling cancer for several years. The statement said he died at a palliative-care center in Terrebonne, Quebec, outside Montreal.
His death was announced just two days after the 73-year-old Angelil died in suburban Las Vegas.
Daniel Dion, the father of two daughters, was the eighth of 14 Dion children.
Cher donates water to troubled Flint, Mich.
NEW YORK
Cher is donating water to the residents of Flint, Mich., as the city struggles with a drinking-water crisis linked to lead contamination.
More than 180,000 bottles will be shipped to the city starting Monday, according to a statement Cher released to The Associated Press on Saturday.
“This is a tragedy of staggering proportion and shocking that it’s happening in the middle of our country,” the Oscar winner said.
The city’s 100,000 residents haven’t had safe water to drink since 2014, when officials began drawing water from the Flint River as a cost-saving measure. However, the city did not treat corrosive water properly, which led to metal leaching from old pipes.
Associated Press