Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - July 22, 2015, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE A5 winnipegfreepress. com CANADA / WORLD WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, WEDNESDAY, JULY 22, 2015 A 5 CLASSIFIED IS ON- LINE AT www. winnipegfreepress. com WED. TO FRI. NOON - 8PM | SAT. 9: 30AM - 5PM ALL SALES ARE FINAL. SOLD AS IS IN JULY UP 75 % TO OFF Furniture Factory Outlet 630 Kernaghan Ave Door 79 | 204.988.0800 ENTER CODE: PLAYNOW10 BUY $ 10 GET $ 10 ONLINE LOTTERY FREEPLAY * * Conditions apply. Offer valid on first deposits only with promo code until September 15, 2015. Visit PlayNow. com/ Get10 for details. SIGN UP TODAY WEDNESDAY'S JACKPOT PLUS THE GUARANTEED $ 1 MILLION PRIZE DRAW EST. $ 41 Million P HILADELPHIA - Bill Cosby's lawyers argued on Tuesday his admission to using Quaaludes in the 1970s doesn't mean he drugged and sexually assaulted women. The comments came as the lawyers asked a court to preserve the confidentiality of Cosby's 2006 settlement in a sexual- battery lawsuit, which the accuser wants unsealed. Cosby's lawyers instead attacked the weekend release of his deposition by a courtreporting service and said the deposition and other filings unsealed this month have led to erroneous reports that brand Cosby a rapist. " The media immediately pounced, inaccurately labelling the released testimony as defendant's ' confession' of ' drugging' women and assaulting them," Cosby lawyers Patrick O'Connor and George Gowen wrote. " Reading the media accounts, one would conclude that defendant has admitted to rape. And yet defendant admitted to nothing more than being one of the many people who introduced Quaaludes into their consensual sex life in the 1970s." Cosby, 78, has been married for more than half a century. A federal judge in Philadelphia cited his self- imposed role as a " public moralist" in deciding to release long- sealed documents that contained excerpts from his deposition, in which he speaks of getting Quaaludes to give women before sex. Cosby said he did not take drugs or drink alcohol during the encounters with the women. " There are countless tales of celebrities, music stars, and wealthy socialites in the 1970s willingly using Quaaludes for recreational purposes and during consensual sex," his lawyers wrote, noting the pills were then called " disco biscuits." The decade- old deposition represents the only time Cosby is known to have testified under oath about sexualassault allegations. A former Temple University employee, Andrea Constand, told police Cosby had drugged and sexually assaulted her at his Philadelphia- area home. She called Cosby a friend and mentor. Cosby portrayed her as a willing partner in the deposition. She sued him after a prosecutor declined to press charges. More than two dozen women have come forward since 2005 to accuse Cosby of molesting them. His agents have disputed many of their accounts, and he has not been charged with a crime. - The Associated Press Cosby did nothing illegal, his lawyers insist in court Bill Cosby DAVID GOLDMAN / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Sombre embrace Cathy Wells, mother of Lance Cpl. Squire Wells, is embraced by Lance Cpl. Kurt Bright, one of Wells' best friends, upon arriving at a memorial service for her son in Marietta, Ga., Tuesday. Crowds gathered to remember the marine, who was one of five fatally shot in an attack on military facilities in Chattanooga, Tenn., last week. Wells was texting his girlfriend that day. His last two words were ' ACTIVE SHOOTER.' OTTAWA - The federal NDP has been cleared of improprieties by the federal commissioner of elections over mailings sent to two Manitoba ridings around the time of 2013 byelections. Yves C�t� launched an investigation upon a complaint from Liberal MP Marc Garneau that the NDP had sent large volumes of flyers to voters in four federal ridings during byelections in the fall of 2013. That included the ridings of Provencher and Brandon- Souris in Manitoba, Bourassa in Montreal and Toronto Centre. Garneau contended the NDP didn't properly claim the flyers as an election expense. C�t� disagreed. He said the mailings in Provencher were sent outside the writ period and therefore were clearly not election advertising. The flyers sent in Brandon- Souris were properly claimed as an election expense, he said. Although the flyers sent in the two other ridings did arrive during the election, they were actually mailed two days before the writ was dropped, which means they were not in violation, said C�t� in a letter to NDP national director Anne McGrath sent last week. C�t� noted the NDP tried to recall the mailings when the writ was dropped but Canada Post had already begun processing them and the delivery couldn't be stopped. " Accordingly, these mailings were not an election expense of the NDP," C�t� wrote. C�t� said he has reached the conclusion that no offence was committed. The NDP were gleeful about the finding. " Our opponents aren't interested in facts, just desperate, baseless attacks," said party spokesman Marc- Andr� Viau. The NDP did not win any of the byelections. The Liberals held onto both Bourassa and Toronto Centre and the Conservatives held onto the two Manitoba ridings. mia. rabson@ freepress. mb. ca Watchdog clears NDP in byelection mailings By Mia Rabson A_ 05_ Jul- 22- 15_ FP_ 01. indd A5 7/ 21/ 15 9: 07: 57 PM ;