As Bill Cosby prepares for his sexual assault trial next month, the entertainer posted a tweet Monday expressing love for his family and seemingly urging his slain son Ennis, who has been dead for 20 years, to “keep fighting.” 
 
 “I love you Camille, Erika, Erin, Ensa & Evin — keep fighting in Spirit Ennis,” reads the post. 
 
 Ennis Cosby, 27, was fatally shot in January 1997 during an attempted carjacking after he pulled onto the roadside of Interstate 405 in Los Angeles to change a flat tire. The killer, Michael Markhasev, was convicted and sentenced to life without parole. 
 
 I love you Camille, Erika, Erinn, Ensa & Evin – keep fighting in Spirit Ennis — Bill Cosby (@BillCosby) May 15, 2017 
 
 In April, Cosby’s youngest daughter, Evin, 40, defended her father in an online essay, writing that he “loves and respects women.” 
 
 Evin Cosby added, “He is not abusive, violent or a rapist. Sure, like many celebrities tempted by opportunity, he had his affairs, but that was between him and my mother. They have worked through it and moved on, and I am glad they did for them and for our family.” 
 
 Cosby, 79, has pleaded not guilty to three counts of aggravated indecent assault for allegedly drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand at his Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, mansion in January 2004. Jury selection begins May 22, with the trial scheduled to start June 5. 
 
 The entertainer, through his attorneys, repeatedly has denied the allegations related to Constand and similar claims from more than 50 other women. 
 
 Andrea Constand Todd Korol/The Toronto Star via Zuma Wire 
 
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 In an interview posted April 26 with the NNPA Newswire, which posted his daughter’s essay the same day, Cosby said he is now completely blind after waking about two years ago and telling wife Camille, “I can’t see.” 
 
 Cosby gave up performing after he was charged in December 2015 with the alleged assault on Constand, now 44, a former Temple University employee. 
 
 Daughter’s Essay Claimed ‘Public Persecution’ of Cosby 
 
 In her essay, Evin Cosby referenced the loss of her brother. 
 
 “I thought when my brother Ennis was murdered, that was the worst nightmare of all time,” she wrote. “It’s so hurtful to this day. I try to block out the day he was killed, but that pain has only worsened in these last few years. For some reason, my family’s pain has been a trigger for people to seize upon us harder.” 
 
 Although Bill Cosby did not discuss the sexual assault case against him in his published interview, Evin addressed the topic head-on. 
 
 “The public persecution of my dad, my kids’ grandfather, and the cruelty of the media and those who speak out branding my father a ‘rapist’ without ever knowing the truth and who shame our family and our friends for defending my dad makes all of this so much worse for my family and my children.” she wrote. 
 
 Ennis Cosby George School, Mark Osterman/AP 
 
 “Two years ago, and over 10 years later, several women came out,” she wrote. “Like the woman from 2005, they claimed to have been raped or drugged. But, like the one from 2005, their stories didn’t match up. Instead of going through the criminal justice system, these stories never got investigated and just got repeated. They have been accepted as the truth. My dad tried to defend himself. His lawyers tried to defend him, but they all got sued.” 
 
 “People were constantly reaching out to me about why doesn’t you dad say something,” she wrote. “I kept saying he’s trying, but the media is only interested in the stories of the women. Friends of our tried to help, but the media wouldn’t print what they said or knew.” 
 
 Cosby settled a civil lawsuit with Constand in 2006. But in a decade-old deposition, Cosby said he acquired seven prescriptions for quaaludes in the 1970s with the intent of giving them to women he was pursuing for sex. He said he no longer had the prescriptions when the alleged incident with Constand occurred. 
 
 After a judge ruled April 28 that jurors in the current case will be allowed to hear testimony about Cosby’s intentions with quaaludes, both his spokesman, Andrew Wyatt, and the prosecutor in the case, Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele, declined comment. ||||| As his sexual assault trial looms, Bill Cosby broke his silence early Wednesday to say he is now completely blind. 
 
 Also, in an emotional essay published early Wednesday, Cosby’s youngest daughter Evin defended the entertainer. 
 
 My father “loves and respects women,” Evin Cosby, 40, wrote in an essay published on the NNPA Newswire. “He is not abusive, violent or a rapist. Sure, like many celebrities tempted by opportunity, he had his affairs, but that was between him and my mother. They have worked through it and moved on, and I am glad they did for them and for our family” 
 
 Cosby, 79, is charged with three counts of aggravated indecent assault for allegedly drugging and sexually assaulting former Temple employee Andrea Constand, now 44, at his Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, mansion in January 2004. Cosby has pleaded not guilty and denies similar claims from more than 50 other women. He is scheduled to go to trial on the charges on June 5. Jury selection begins in Pittsburgh on May 22. 
 
 In his interview with the NNPA Newswire, Cosby said he’s blind. About two years ago, he awoke two years ago and said to his wife, Camille, “I can’t see,” he told the outlet. 
 
 Bill Cosby (left) with Andrew Wyatt in court in Norristown, Pennsylvania on April 3. CLEM MURRAY/AFP/Getty 
 
 “Doctors later confirmed the worst: that there was nothing that could be done to repair his vision,” the story says. 
 
 “When he would perform, we’d draw a wide straight yellow line from backstage to the chair on stage and he’d rehearse the walk, hours before the show,” Andrew Wyatt, one of Cosby’s spokespeople, told the NNPA Newswire. 
 
 Cosby spoke mostly about his passion and support for education in the interview. He said he misses performing and that he hopes to resume his career. He stopped performing after he was charged in December 2015 with sexually assaulting Constand. 
 
 “I hope that day will come,” he told the outlet. “I have some routines and storytelling that I am working on. I think about walking out on stage somewhere in the United States of America and sitting down in a chair and giving the performance that will be the beginning of the next chapter of my career.” 
 
 Cosby declined to discuss the current sexual assault case against him but Evin did not shy away from the topic in her essay. 
 
 Evin Cosby Bryan Bedder/Getty 
 
 “The public persecution of my dad, my kids’ grandfather, and the cruelty of the media and those who speak out branding my father a ‘rapist’ without ever knowing the truth and who shame our family and our friends for defending my dad makes all of this so much worse for my family and my children,” she wrote. 
 
 “Two years ago, and over 10 years later, several women came out,” she wrote. Like the woman from 2005, they claimed to have been raped and drugged. But, like the one from 2005, their stories didn’t match up. Instead of going through the criminal justice system, these stories never got investigated and just got repeated. They have been accepted as the truth. My dad tried to defend himself. His lawyers tried to defend him, but they all got sued. 
 
 “People were constantly reaching out to me about why doesn’t your dad say something,” she wrote. “I kept saying he’s trying, but the media is only interested in the stories of the women. Friends of ours tried to help, but the media wouldn’t print what they said or knew.” 
 
 Attorneys for Constand and seven other women with defamation lawsuits against Cosby could not immediately be reached for comment. 
 
 Evin referenced the January 1997 murder of her 28-year-old brother, Ennis. 
 
 “I thought when my brother Ennis was murdered, that was the worst nightmare of all time,” she wrote. “It’s so hurtful to this day. I try to block out the day he was killed, but that pain has only worsened in these last years. For some reason, my family’s pain has been a trigger for people to seize upon us harder.” ||||| Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. 
 
 NORRISTOWN, Pa. — As Bill Cosby's sexual assault trial opened Monday, there was a reminder of his former reputation as "America's Dad" — the actress who played his youngest daughter on TV. 
 
 Keshia Knight Pulliam, 38, who played Rudy Huxtable on "The Cosby Show," accompanied the comedian into the Montgomery County courthouse, where he stands accused of drugging and molesting a woman at his home in 2004. 
 
 Bill Cosby arrives for the first day of his sexual assault trial at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pennsylvania on June 5, 2017. Brendan McDermid / Reuters 
 
 Neither Cosby nor Pulliam spoke as they entered. 
 
 Gloria Allred, the attorney who represents some of the dozens of women who have accused Cosby of sexual misconduct, called it an "historic day." 
 
 "It's the first time Mr. Cosby will have to face his accusers in criminal court," Allred said. 
 
 A handful of those women traveled to be at the green-domed courthouse in small-town Pennsylvania. 
 
 "I haven't seen him since 1969," said Victoria Valentino, 74, who says Cosby drugged and raped her in Los Angeles nearly five decades ago. 
 
 "I hope he makes eye contact because I'd love to look him in the eye and stare him down." 
 
 Related: 'No Fear': Andrea Constand Ready to Confront Cosby at Trial 
 
 Cosby, 79, is on trial for allegedly assaulting just one woman, Andrea Constand, who worked for his alma mater, Temple University. 
 
 She claims that after two years of friendship and mentorship, the star turned predator, giving her pills that incapacitated her and then molesting her while she lay "paralyzed." 
 
 Cosby has portrayed the encounter as consensual, saying he gave Constand two Benadryl pills to help her relax. He has pleaded not guilty to three counts of aggravated indecent assault, denied all other allegations and sued some of his accusers for defamation. 
 
 The "I Spy" actor, who says glaucoma has left him legally blind, does not intend to take the stand. Constand, who settled a lawsuit against Cosby in 2006, will testify. Other potential witnesses include: 
 
 Prior Alleged Victim No. 6: Also known by the pseudonym Kacey, she is the only one of the other accusers who can testify. A former assistant to Cosby's late agent, she alleges that in 1996, after Cosby insisted she take a pill, she woke up in bed with the half-naked entertainer. 
 
 An unnamed William Morris Agency employee who the defense contends can contradict Kacey's account of her interaction with Cosby. 
 
 A psychologist who will discuss the behavior of sex-abuse victims. Prosecutors may use her testimony to try to explain why Constand waited a year to report the alleged assault to police. 
 
 Pharmaceutical experts who will testify about the effects of Benadryl and Quaaludes, the latter of which Cosby has admitted he gave to women for sex in the 1970s. 
 
 Although the jury was chosen in the Pittsburgh area, the trial is taking place in Montgomery County in the Philadelphia suburb of Norristown. 
 
 Barricades ringed the columned courthouse on Sunday night in anticipation of big crowds, but as of 7 a.m., there were only a few spectators lined up to get in. 
 
 Bill Parker, 43, who owns a donut shop said the he thought the trial "would be an incredible event to witness." 
 
 "He has been an idol to us," Parker said. "To hear the accusations was quite a shocker." 
 
 Parker said he was "trying to remain neutral" on the question of whether Cosby attacked Constand. "But I'm already disappointed he confessed to extramarital affairs," he said. "It doesn't connect with the man we thought he was." 
 
 Other local residents said they had not paid much attention to the legal drama that had played out at the courthouse over the last year. 
 
 "I don't know what's happening," said one 15-year-old walking by the stately building. "Who is Bill Cosby?" ||||| Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. 
 
 Bill Cosby is prepping for trial — and a comedy comeback. 
 
 Weeks before a jury will be picked in his sexual-assault case, the TV star gave an interview to a consortium of black-owned newspapers and said he's anxious to start performing again. 
 
 "I miss it all and I hope that day will come. I have some routines and storytelling that I am working on," Cosby told the National Newspaper Publishers Association. 
 
 "I think about walking out on stage somewhere in the United States of America and sitting down in a chair and giving the performance that will be the beginning of the next chapter of my career." 
 
 Cosby also said that he is blind — which his defense lawyers had previously disclosed in court papers. 
 
 The 79-year-old actor has been charged with drugging and molesting a woman, Andrea Constand, at his Pennsylvania home in 2004. It's the only criminal case stemming from dozens of accusations of sexual misconduct, many of which are past the statute of limitations. 
 
 Cosby has denied wrongdoing and sued some of his accusers for defamation. 
 
 His attorneys have complained that that negative publicity about him could taint his trial, which is set to begin in early June. 
 
 Attorney Gloria Allred, who represents some of Cosby's accusers, said she thinks the interview was an attempt by the defense to influence the jury pool. 
 
 "I expect Mr. Cosby and members of his family to continue to speak out in an attempt to portray him as a victim rather than as an alleged sexual predator," Allred said. 
 
 "However, the jury must decide this case based on the evidence admitted in the court room instead of what they see or hear as part of a slick Hollywood public relations campaign." 
 
 Cosby did not discuss specifics of the case in the interview. In court filings, his lawyers have argued he is being persecuted because of his race and fame. 
 
 "The history about African-Americans is a history of the United States; but the true histories, not the propaganda that is standard in our nation’s history books," Cosby told the newspaper group. 
 
 "The great writer, James Baldwin, said, ‘If you lie about me, then you lie about yourself.’ The revolution is in the home. There is something about someone saying, ‘I didn’t know that,’ that could cause a change in that person’s thinking." 
 
 One of Cosby's daughters, Evin, also released a statement about the allegations, saying they have wounded the entire family. 
 
 "The harsh and hurtful accusations…that supposedly happened 40 or 50 years ago, before I was born, in another lifetime, and that have been carelessly repeated as truth without allowing my dad to defend himself and without requiring proof, has punished not just my dad but every one of us," she wrote. 
 
 "The public persecution of my dad, my kids’ grandfather, and the cruelty of the media and those who speak out branding my father a 'rapist' without ever knowing the truth and who shame our family and our friends for defending my dad, makes all of this so much worse for my family and my children."
– Bill Cosby's daughter insists her father "loves and respects women" in an essay published in his defense on NNPA Newsire Wednesday. Evin Cosby, the youngest of Cosby's five children, recalls how her father always wanted the family to be close and says she had a wonderful childhood. She slams the "public persecution" of her father and the media's "cruelty," insisting that the stories of sexual assault Cosby's accusers are telling don't "match up" and were never investigated, yet "they have been accepted as the truth." She says supporters who tried to defend Cosby "were pressured to shut up" and that the media didn't publish their support, and insists Cosby has been deemed guilty even though his trial for allegedly drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand has not yet started. "My dad, like anyone in this country, deserves to be treated fairly under the law," she writes. "My dad broke barriers and raised the conscious [sic] of America on important topics, especially for the advancement of women." She does acknowledge he had affairs, but says he never raped anyone and those affairs are "between him and my mother," who have worked things out and moved on. In a separate interview with NNPA Newsire, which NBC News describes as "a consortium of black-owned newspapers," Cosby himself speaks out, though not much about the case specifically. He did say that his career is on hold for now due to the scandal, but that he hopes to perform again someday. Cosby, 79, also said that he is now completely blind. Jury selection in Cosby's trial begins May 22, and the trial is set to start June 5, People reports.