New York Post - 13.08.2019

New York Post, Tuesday, August 13, 2019

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HARRISBURG, Pa. — Bill

Cosby’s lawyers argued before

three skeptical appeals judges

Monday — only to see the jurists

shrug skeptically and raise their

palms in exasperation.

Kristen Weisenberger con-

tended that the trial judge should

not have let five accusers take the

stand against Cosby at his sex-

abuse trial involving Andrea Con-

stand. Cosby was never charged in

their cases, which were too old to

be prosecuted.

Montgomery County Judge Ste-

ven O’Neill allowed the testimony

because he said it established a

pattern of “prior bad acts.’’

Weisenberger argued that there

was not enough similarity be-

tween the women’s allegations to

show a pattern.

“He gave them drugs, and then

he had sex with them. That’s the

pattern, is it not?” retorted appeals

Judge John Bender.

Cosby’s lawyers also said O’Neill

should have upheld an agreement

that a Pennsylvania DA made with

Cosby not to prosecute him if he

agreed to settle with Constand.

Cosby ended up paying her

around $3.4 million. But Bender

contended the prosecutor “did

that on his own.’’ Reuven Fenton

Cos cause

doubted

A Norwegian Airlines Boeing

787 Dreamliner was a nightmare

for a village near Rome when de-

bris from the jetliner struck one

person, 25 vehicles and a dozen

homes, according to reports.

The plane reached an altitude of

3,000 feet when red-hot fragments

rained down onto Isola Sacra is-

land just south of the city.

“It was a storm of steel and

iron,” a resident told the newspa-

per Il Messaggero. “I screamed

and ran into the house.”

One resident was struck by

some of the debris and suffered

minor burns, but avoided major

injuries. More than two dozen ve-

hicles and 12 homes were dam-

aged. Yaron Steinbuch

Plane debris

rains on Rome

Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht

tried to get his life sentence for

drug trafficking and money laun-

dering vacated Monday, but Man-

hattan federal court Judge Lorna

Schofield tossed the request.

She called the filing “moot.”

Jurors convicted Ulbricht in

February 2015 on various raps re-

lated to running the dark-’Net

Web site. Priscilla DeGregory

Judge’s Web stinger

Speaker hits reverse on 14th St. car ban

Corey Johnson threw the city’s

14th Street car ban under the bus

on Monday — but only briefly.

The City Council speaker took

the side of his constituents who

are fighting the city’s plan to

speed up buses on the street by

nixing cars, telling WNYC he

shares their concerns about spill-

over traffic on side streets.

“I am concerned that some of

the side streets are going to turn

into parking lots,” Johnson said.

The plan — which would re-

strict five blocks of 14th Street to

buses, trucks with three or more

axles, delivery vehicles and local

residents — has been on hold in-

definitely since July 1, thanks to a

suit from local block associations.

City officials claim worries

about traffic are unfounded.

Limiting car access on 14th

Street, meanwhile, would increase

bus speeds for more than 27,

daily trips by up to 30 percent, ac-

cording to the city’s forecasts.

Johnson argued that a citywide

road map for bus lanes, which he

has proposed, would better ad-

dress locals’ concerns.

But seven hours after his radio

appearance, he walked back his

comments — expressing support

for the “pilot program to get bus

riders moving across 14th Street.”

“The DOT has agreed to my re-

quest to hire a third-party firm

that will help monitor this pilot

and collect and analyze data,” he

said in a statement. “When this pi-

lot is over, we will know what

worked and what didn’t.”

David Meyer

By NIKKI SCHWAB

Post Correspondent

DES MOINES, Iowa —

Mayor de Blasio’s presi-

dential bid doesn’t have a

kernel of hope.

So say the early returns

of the Iowa State Fair’s de-

cidedly unscientific corn-

kernel poll, in which vot-

ing-age attendees plunk a

kernel into the Mason jar

corresponding to the can-

didate of their choice.

As of 6 p.m. Sunday,

minutes after Hizzoner’s

stump speech from atop

the famed Political Soap-

box, The Post counted

only about 25 kernels in de

Blasio’s jar — with more

than 20,000 votes cast.

The ill omen at the

event, long considered a

bellwether in the early

days of campaign sea-

son, held into late Mon-

day, when the local NBC

affiliate’s live tally had

de Blasio drawing 0

percent.

Former Vice President

Joe Biden paced the over-

stuffed field with 24 per-

cent. Another three

White House hopefuls —

Massachusetts Sen. Eliz-

abeth Warren (16 per-

cent), South Bend Mayor

Pete Buttigieg (15 per-

cent) and California Sen.

Kamala Harris (13 per-

cent) — cracked double

digits, while Vermont

Sen. Bernie Sanders was

knocking on the door

with 9 percent.

The race had a razor-

thin margin, with 51 per-

cent of kernels cast for

Democratic candidates

and 49 percent for either

President Trump or Re-

publican challenger Bill

Weld, the former gover-

nor of Massachusetts.

Among the 24 Demo-

cratic candidates, six reg-

istered goose eggs.

De Blasio was joined at

the bottom of the barrel

by former Pennsylvania

Rep. Joe Sestak, Mayor

Wayne Messam of Mira-

mar, Fla., and Massachu-

setts Rep. Seth Moulton

— none of whom even

took the stage in either of

the first two televised

Democratic debates.

De Blasio’s poor show-

ing came despite his best

everyman impression at

the fair, spending Sunday

downing a corn dog, guz-

zling lemonade and win-

ning a stuffed pig in a

game of Skee-Ball.

He then asked fair at-

tendees to lend him their

ears, but only about a

tenth of the crowd that

came out for Sanders —

who took to the Soapbox

directly before de Blasio

— stuck around to hear

Hizzoner.

But de Blasio seems un-

deterred by the initial

lack of traction his cam-

paign has shown, even

failing as of this point to

meet the donation and

polling requirements for

the third round of de-

bates in September.

“I don’t buy into any of

those hypothetical ques-

tions,” he told The Post

on Sunday when asked

whether he would con-

cede defeat and drop out

of the race if he fails to

qualify before the Aug. 28

deadline. “The idea is to

keep building.”

Additional reporting by

Aaron Feis

[email protected]

A-maize-ingly bad result in Iowa

Scorn

on cob

for DeB

CREAMED: Mayor de Blasio walks away with zero percent support in the corn-

kernel poll at the Iowa State Fair with only 23 votes. He remains undeterred.

NY Post: Nikki Schwab