Cos offered $ to accuser Mom allegedly recorded call made after claim was filed

By NICOLE WEISENSEE EGAN weisenn@phillynews.com BILL COSBY was secretly taped offering financial compensation to the Canadian woman who has accused him of drugging and groping her, but she did not take him up on his offer, sources said. The offer came after the woman reported the allegations to Canadian authorities on Jan. 13 and was made to the victim's mother, sources said. The offer is reflected in taped conversations, sources said. Because the woman did not take him up on his offer, the tapes refute suggestions that the Canadian woman filed charges against Cosby in order to get money from him, sources said. The Canadian woman turned over the tapes to Montgomery County prosecutors, sources said. Bebe Kivitz and Dolores Troiani, the Canadian woman's attorneys, declined to comment on the tapes. Kivitz and Troiani did denounce yesterday's "Celebrity Justice" TV report that, citing sources connected to Cosby, said the woman's mother tried to extort money from Cosby before her daughter went to police. The Toronto Sun, and numerous other publications, have reported that the alleged victim introduced her parents to Cosby last August when he was in Toronto. That is not true either, the lawyers said. Cosby met the woman's mother in March 2003 but has never met her father, they said. A Cosby attorney has confirmed that they did not meet him in August. Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce L. Castor Jr. was out of town yesterday and could not be reached for comment. His first assistant, Risa Vetri Ferman, did not return a phone call requesting comment. Walter Phillips Jr., Cosby's attorney, also was out of town yesterday and could not be reached for comment. Two weeks ago, Castor said he would reach a decision about whether to charge Cosby "or anyone else" sometime this week. The Canadian woman got to know Cosby through her job at Temple University, where she was director of operations for the women's basketball team. Cosby was a frequent attendee of games. The Canadian woman did not tell anyone about what she alleges happened to her until she told her mother a few weeks before she went to police, her attorneys said. She reported the alleged drugging and groping to Canadian police on Jan. 13. She told cops it happened the previous January at Cosby's Elkins Park mansion. She said that she and Cosby were out to dinner with others in Philadelphia, then he invited her back to his home. Once there, she complained of "stress and tension" and Cosby offered her pills, she said, according to a police report. After she took the pills, she became "dizzy and sick" and Cosby helped her to a sofa, the report said. After that, she said her memories are fuzzy but she recalls Cosby "touching her breast and placing her hand on his penis," the report said. She woke up about 4 a.m. with "her clothing in disarray and her bra undone," the report said, and drove herself home. Yesterday, the Daily News reported that another woman has come forward to say Cosby drugged and groped her about 30 years ago. Tamara Green, a semi-retired attorney in Ventura, Calif., said she gave a statement to Castor's office and to Troiani and Kivitz. She said she came forward now because Phillips, Cosby's attorney, has called the Canadian woman's story "bizarre" and "preposterous" and Castor had characterized the case against Cosby as weak. "I heard his lawyer said her claims were preposterous and basically I thought, 'My eye. He did exactly the same thing to me,' " Green, 57, said in yesterday's Daily News. "Then I heard a press release from the district attorney saying he thought the case was weak and why did she wait so long to come forward? " Green said. "I worked in a D.A.'s office and that's D.A.-speak for 'We're not filing charges. ' I felt compelled to come forward after that. " Yesterday, on Michael Smerconish's morning radio show on WPHT (1210-AM), before heading to Canada on another case, Castor angrily denied that he said the case against Cosby was weak. "You'll find no place where I said the case was weak or anything of that nature," Castor said. "What I said was, under Pennsylvania law, a delay in reporting . . . is to the benefit of the defendant, unless there is some good reason why a victim waited to come forward. That's what I said." *