Cosby, 78, is being charged with aggravated indecent assault; this is the only criminal case to transpire from the dozens of women who accused Cosby of drugging and sexually assaulting them.
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The famous TV and comedy star could receive up to 10 years in prison if he is convicted.
Cosby’s lawyers attempted to have the case dismissed on the basis of an alleged promise that former Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce Castor made to Cosby in 2005.
Lawyers for Constand painted Bill Cosby as a hostile figure in past legal proceedings and called the actions of a district attorney who didn’t prosecute him politically motivated during testimony at Cosby’s hearing Wednesday afternoon.
Cosby has been accused of rape, drugging and performing inappropriate sex acts by over 50 women in the past 18 months.
Most of the back-and-forth in court hinged on the wording and interpretation of a 2005 press release in which Castor announced he would not prosecute Cosby.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for March 8, though Cosby’s lawyers are allegedly going to appeal the court’s decision.
He said he was referring in some passages to bringing charges against Cosby in connection with other women and other crimes – but not in connection with the Constand encounter in January 2004.
Cosby was charged December 30 with drugging and violating Constand more than a decade ago.
Bill Cosby has arrived at a suburban Philadelphia courthouse where a judge will decide whether to dismiss a sexual assault case against the comedian. The incident before the court this time, however, is only 11 years old, and O’Neill ruled that a prosecutor’s promise not to charge the comedian was not legally valid.
“He’s worked very hard and made a lot of money over the years”, Cosby lawyer Christopher Tayback said of his client.
The argument revolved around an oral agreement between Castor and Cosby’s attorney in which Cosby agreed to give a deposition in a civil suit brought by the alleged victim in 2005.
Constand, a former director of operations for Temple University’s women’s basketball team, met Cosby in 2002 when, according to prosecution documents, she believed he sought her out to be a “mentor” and “sincere friend”.
He said he wanted to use the agreement to force Cosby to testify in Constand’s civil case without invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
“We certainly wouldn’t have let him (Cosby) sit for a deposition” if he were still subject to criminal prosecution in the case, Schmitt said. She says Cosby invited her to his home, gave her wine and urged her to take three blue pills.
Judge Steven T. O’Neill puzzled over testimony from former Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce Castor Tuesday and peppered him with questions. She-said-he-said cases, absent forensic and witness evidence, go to trial all the time, Slotnick says.
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Current District Attorney Kevin Steele says there’s no evidence of an agreement not to charge Cosby.
