They contend that a trial was contingent on their ability to interrogate Constand in court, but their habeas corpus petition was denied. Prosecutors have vowed that she will testify at trial, potentially alongside some of Cosby’s other accusers. Steele says the defense operated around a “mistaken belief” it had a right to confront the Cosby’s accuser at this stage. The defense in that case has now appealed the Superior Court decision to the state Supreme Court, which has agreed to hear arguments in that case.
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His lead defense attorney, Brian McMonagle, vowed to restore Cosby’s “good name”.
“[Defense attorneys] want to attack that for their case, they want to re-victimize the person”, said Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele, BillyPenn reported.
Constand, who didn’t testify at the preliminary hearing in May, considered Cosby a mentor while she was working at Temple University.
“You know what a witness can do?” he asked the court. “A witness can say, ‘That’s not right.’ A witness can recant”. He reiterated the point, saying that a witness can do and say all kinds of things that a piece of paper can’t. They sought to reopen the preliminary hearing and compel Constand to testify – or to have the charges dismissed entirely.
“It’s our position we’re not going to retraumatize victims”, Dist. Atty.
The judge, as he ruled, said, “One side sees this as an efficient way to handle cases”.
“The commonwealth does not have to put witnesses on the stand”, O’Neill said in court. Constand was not in the courtroom.
But prosecutors said current case law allows the use of hearsay at preliminary hearings, even though the issue is pending before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
A judge in Norristown today shot down entertainer Bill Cosby’s latest attempt to have the charges against him dropped for allegedly drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand.
“I started to have blurred vision”, she said in the statement read into the record at the preliminary hearing. The two settled in 2006 and the case was sealed. Steele focused, in particular, on Cosby’s admission that he had given pills and wine to Constand, then had sexual contact with her.
At issue was the fact that Constand did not testify before Judge Elizabeth McHugh ruled that prosecutors had enough evidence to go to trial.
Prosecutors at the time chose not to charge Cosby, who insists their sexual encounter was consensual.
That hearing saw Cosby ordered to stand trial. In a transcript of Constand’s January 2005 interview with police, Constand claimed that Cosby invited her to his home for a conversation about her future.
“We are looking forward in getting this case to trial”, said Steele.
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Cosby called their encounter consensual and describes the blue pills he gave her as Benadryl. She consumed both voluntarily.
