Cosby was in a Pennsylvania court on Thursday for a hearing on whether he should have been allowed to confront his accuser at a preliminary hearing before a judge ruled he should stand trial on a sex assault charge. “Justice has been delayed too long”. Cosby, however, took issue to the fact that Constand was not present to testify in person.
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Cosby and his legal team tried to argue that since they were not able to cross-examine the accuser, who did not show up to the preliminary hearing, that the case should be dismissed.
Cosby, once one of the most beloved USA entertainers thanks to his family-friendly persona, is facing accusations of sexual assault from dozens of women stretching back decades.
Under the state rules, second- or third-hand testimony, known as hearsay, is enough to establish that a crime was committed at a preliminary hearing, though that rule is now under review by the state’s high court.
A pre-trial hearing was held Thursday in the case of Bill Cosby, who is accused of drugging and molesting former Temple University employee Andrea Constand at his Montgomery County home in 2004. That hearing ended with a magistrate ordering Cosby to stand trial, although a date has not yet been set.
Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele countered that the right of defendants like Cosby to confront their accusers in court doesn’t apply at Pennsylvania preliminary hearings. That’s also what Constand said in her statement to police.
“We were acting within the law”, said county Chief of Appeals Robert Falin, responding to Tayback. “I do not believe the Supreme Court would promulgate a rule that is unconstitutional”, he said.
“Though the Court decided the government reached the low threshold required for today’s preliminary hearing, we have no doubt this case ultimately will be resolved in Mr Cosby’s favour”. Gilman ordered that a new preliminary hearing be awarded in that case to have the victim testify. At the time of the alleged assault, Constand was the director of operations for the women’s basketball team; she is now a massage therapist in Toronto, according to The Toronto Sun.
Cosby, who has denied the accusations, faces three counts of felony aggravated indecent assault.
Police and prosecutors then reopened the Constand case in 2015, bringing the charges just weeks before the statute of limitations was due to expire in January. At the time charges no charges were placed against him, after she disclosed to Police.
Cosby’s spokesman, Andrew Wyatt declined to comment on the court’s ruling.
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Cosby has maintained that his encounter with Constand was consensual and in a deposition taken years ago, and gave Constand Benadryl and wine, not blue pills.
