A judge has refused to throw out the sex assault case against Bill Cosby, sweeping aside a former district attorney’s claim that he granted the comedian immunity from prosecution a decade ago. After Cosby’s lawyers tried to bring the case to a halt with this loophole about immunity from the District Attorney, Judge O’Neill ruled yesterday that “there was no basis to grant the relief requested”. But Pennsylvania Common Pleas Court Judge Steven O’Neill dismissed the immunity claim after a two-day hearing in suburban Philadelphia.
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A preliminary hearing is scheduled for March 8, though Cosby’s lawyers are allegedly going to appeal the court’s decision. In a deposition he gave in a lawsuit filed by Constand, he admitted he gave her Benadryl and wine but said the encounter was consensual.
At the hearing this week, Cosby’s lawyers tried to get the case thrown out by putting Mr Castor himself on the stand. This is the only case in which he has been charged.
The charge by the Montgomery County District Attorney’s office came as no surprise…[f]iled 12 years after the alleged incident and coming on the heels of a hotly contested election for this county’s DA during which this case was made the focal point.
“This is a significant step forward for victims of sexual violence”, Karen Polesir, a leader of the Philadelphia arm of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, a group that advocates for victims of sexual assault, said of the judge’s decision, according to Reuters.
Cosby’s lawyers had attempted to argue that the comedian couldn’t be prosecuted due to an agreement reached with Mr. Castor, the former prosecutor, in 2005, calling him as their key witness.
In another setback for the defense, the judge also denied a request to disqualify newly elected District Attorney Kevin Steele from the case. The depositions conflict with statements Cosby made to authorities when they initially looked into Constand’s accusation.
“In this case, the prosecution should be stopped in its tracks”, Cosby lawyer Chris Tayback argued.
The unsealing of the testimony from Constand’s lawsuit prompted Castor’s successors to reopen the case and ultimately charge Cosby.
More than 50 women have accused Cosby of drugging and sexually assaulting them since the 1960s, but the statute of limitations for prosecuting the comic has run out in almost every instance.
The case in question stems from allegations made by former Temple University employee Andrea Constand.
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Lawyer John Schmitt said Wednesday he usually gets legal agreements in writing but this time relied on a prosecutor’s press release. Castor insists he had a weak case and steered the matter to civil court in 2005.
