More legal experts say no, but Cosby’s team is expected to put on a vigorous defense of that claim.
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Cosby, who has repeatedly denied wrongdoing over the sexual assault claims, has not entered a plea in relation to the charge. “Tell your mother how we talked”, Cosby said to accuser Andrea Constand and her mother in a taped phone call one year after the alleged assault, The Associated Press reports. In an unusual twist, Castor will be their key witness.
In court papers, Cosby’s lawyers contend the 2005 “binding non-prosecution agreement” was negotiated between Castor and Cosby’s then lawyer, Walter M. Phillips Jr., for the express goal of inducing Cosby to testify in Constand’s civil litigation against him.
Bill Cosby’s attraction to Andrea Constand began the moment he spied her across a Temple University gym in about 2002.
Bill Cosby’s attorney is asking a judge to throw out the rape case against him because of a supposed agreement to give him immunity in exchange for his testimony in a civil lawsuit by Andrea Constand, the accuser.
Anne Poulin, a law professor at Villanova University, said those involved in the case probably would want to hear from O’Connor “on the theory that, certainly as the lawyer representing Cosby in the civil case, he therefore needed to know what (Cosby’s) exposure was to criminal prosecution before he was deposed”.
Ms Poulin believes the defence has a high bar to meet to get the case thrown out early on.
“Three times she said this is a mother’s nightmare”, Cosby testified, then seemed to refer to himself as a “dirty old man”.
Last September, Castor was quoted by the Bucks County Intelligencer as saying he had “signed off” on a “written declaration” that his office would not use Cosby’s deposition where he admitted giving women drugs before sex to criminally charge him.
O’Neill must decide if the so-called non-prosecution agreement is valid and rule on a request by Cosby’s defense team to dismiss charges of aggravated indecent assault against Cosby.
“I never made a deal that involved criminal cases that was not in writing”, Lynne Abraham, a longtime judge and district attorney in Philadelphia, said on Monday. Usually in a criminal case, “a promise by a prosecutor becomes finally binding if there’s a detrimental reliance on the part of the defendant to do something, or avoid doing something, that he otherwise would have done differently”.
However, Ferman, who was Castor’s first assistant in 2005, replied that she was not aware of the agreement at the time.
Tuesday’s court proceeding will again bring together Castor and Steele, political rivals who faced each other in the race for district attorney in November. In fact, the only thing the defense or Castor have pointed to was a 2005 press release that expressly reserved the possibility of future prosecution.
The Cosby case was a major point of contention in the race, which Castor has called “the dirtiest row office election ever in our county”.
The AP noted that they generally do not publish the names of people who say they are victims of sexual assault, but Constand has agreed to allow her name to be published.
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