Bill Cosby’s daughter Ensa, 44, dies in Massachusetts
FILE - In this Aug. 22, 2017, file photo, Bill Cosby departs after a pretrial hearing in his sexual assault case at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pa. Bill Cosby’s 44-year-old daughter Ensa Cosby died Friday, Feb. 23, 2018, in Massachusetts from kidney disease, a spokesman for the comedian said Monday. (Matt Rourke, File/Associated Press)
By Bob Salsberg | APFebruary 26
BOSTON — Bill Cosby’s 44-year-old daughter Ensa Cosby died in Massachusetts from kidney disease, a spokesman for the comedian said Monday.
Spokesman Andrew Wyatt did not immediately offer other details about her death on Friday.
“Please keep the Cosby family in your prayers and give them peace at this time,” he said.
Bill Cosby lost another of his five children in 1997 when his 27-year-old son, Ennis, a graduate student at Columbia University, was shot to death while changing a flat tire near a freeway off ramp in Los Angeles. A 22-year-old man was later convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Bill Cosby, 80, owns a home in the western Massachusetts town of Shelburne Falls.
Ensa Cosby spoke out on her father’s behalf before his trial last year on charges he drugged and molested a woman at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004. He has pleaded not guilty and remains free on bail ahead of his retrial scheduled for April 2. His first trial ended with a hung jury last year.
Ensa Cosby and her sister, Erinn, recorded statements that aired on New York hip-hop radio station Power 105. Ensa Cosby said she strongly believed in her father’s innocence and believed that racism played a big role in aspects of the scandal.
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“How my father is being punished by a society that still believes black men rape white women but passes off ‘boys will be boys’ when white men are accused, and how the politics of our country prove my disgust. My father has been publicly lynched in the media,” she said.
“Boys will be boys” was an apparent reference to President Donald Trump excusing as “locker room talk,” lewd remarks he was recorded making in footage released during the 2016 presidential campaign by “Access Hollywood.”
Cosby is due in court next Monday for a pretrial hearing as his lawyers and prosecutors clash over how many other accusers can testify at his retrial.
In the wake of Ensa Cosby’s death, Bill Cosby could ask to postpone the pretrial hearing or wave his right to be in court for it. Cosby’s lead attorney, Tom Mesereau, did not immediately respond to messages.
A defamation lawsuit filed by seven women who have accused Cosby of sexual misconduct also is pending in Massachusetts.
Ensa Cosby largely stayed out of the public spotlight during her life though she did appear in 1989 in a single episode of her father’s popular sitcom “The Cosby Show,’ which ran from 1984-1992.
Bill Cosby lost another of his five children in 1997 when his son Ennis, a graduate student at Columbia University, was fatally shot during a botched robbery attempt as he was changing a tire on his car in the Sepulveda Pass. A 22-year-old man was later convicted and sentence to life in prison without parole.
Though normally quiet and uncomfortable in the public limelight, Ensa Cosby was an outspoken defender of her father, who was accused of sexual assault by more than 50 women and is facing retrial on charges that he drugged and molested a Temple University staffer in 2004.
"I've seen the accusations become more horrific and extreme with time and I have witnessed my father's reputation and legendary work be dismissed without any proof," she said in a statement to a syndicated morning radio show.
"I strongly believe my father is innocent of the crimes alleged against him and I believe that racism has played a big role in all aspects of this scandal."
Cosby is due in court next Monday for a pretrial hearing as his lawyers and prosecutors clash over how many other accusers can testify at his retrial.
In the wake of Ensa Cosby's death, Bill Cosby could ask to postpone the pretrial hearing or waive his right to be in court for it. Cosby's lead attorney, Tom Mesereau, did not immediately respond to messages.
"The Cosby Family thanks many people for their prayers for their beloved and beautiful Ensa, who recently died from renal disease," the Cosby family said in a post on the comedian's official Facebook page.
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