Names and faces

Prince performs during the halftime show at the Super Bowl XLI football game at Dolphin Stadium in Miami on Sunday, Feb. 4, 2007.
Prince performs during the halftime show at the Super Bowl XLI football game at Dolphin Stadium in Miami on Sunday, Feb. 4, 2007.

There were no obvious signs of trauma on Prince’s body when he was found unresponsive at his home in suburban Minneapolis, and suicide isn’t suspected in the superstar musician’s death, the Carver County sheriff said Friday. Sheriff Jim Olson said during a news conference that Prince was last seen Wednesday evening, when an acquaintance dropped him off at his sprawling compound, Paisley Park. Olson said Prince was found unresponsive late Thursday morning in an elevator on the first floor of his home after staff members couldn’t contact him. Olson declined to say who made the initial 911 call, saying that information was private. But he promised to fully investigate the death. “This is certainly a big event internationally and nationally, and I can tell you that we are going to leave no stone unturned on this and make sure the public knows what happened,” Olson said. Prince had a reputation for clean living and an ability to put on shows that were electrifying in their athleticism. But after his death — after a series of canceled shows, a reported emergency plane landing for medical treatment and a subdued hometown appearance — questions are being raised about whether he was hiding health problems from his fans. An autopsy was completed Friday, but officials said it could take days or weeks before results are released.

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In this Feb. 3, 2016 file photo, actor and comedian Bill Cosby arrives for a court appearance in Norristown, Pa.

A former teen actress is appealing a ruling that threw out her defamation lawsuit against Bill Cosby that involves claims the actor drugged and molested her. Renita Hill, 48, argues that Cosby and others defamed her when they challenged accusations made by Hill and other women who went public in 2014. Cosby, his wife and lawyer made separate statements that painted the women as liars and extortionists, the lawsuit said. Hill argues that the Cosby camp knew the accusations were true. “All three statements are defamatory because they imply that Ms. Hill lied about being sexually assaulted,” lawyer George M. Kontos wrote in the appeal, filed Friday to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. A federal judge had dismissed her suit in January after ruling that the Cosby camp’s comments were protected by the First Amendment. However, a fellow judge in Massachusetts has allowed a similar defamation suit filed by seven Cosby accusers to move forward.

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