Montgomery County prosecutors sought to use Tuesday’s hearing to persuade Judge Elizabeth McHugh that there is enough evidence to put Cosby on trial.
Advertisement
A district court judge in Pennsylvania has ordered actor and comedian Bill Cosby to stand trial over allegations that he sexually assaulted a woman at his Philadelphia home in 2004.
Back in December, Bill Cosby was charged with three counts of felony indecent assault and may face up to 10 years in prison if convicted. At the time, prosecutors declined to pursue criminal charges against Cosby, though he did submit to a deposition which was later used as evidence in a civil suit that Constand filed against him in 2005. Meanwhile, Cosby’s defense attorney has slammed the decision to move forward with a trial.
The comedian, once the highest paid U.S. television star, could go to prison for 10 years if convicted.
Here’s a look at the allegations forming the basis of the charges and how they snowballed more than a decade later into lawsuits, cover stories, and a national conversation on sexual assault.
Constand told police she was attacked as she lay on a sofa “paralyzed” by drugs the entertainer had given her, said a former detective reading from a transcript of Constand’s police interview.
But the allegations dating from 2004 and made by Andrea Constand, who worked for Temple University basketball team and who now lives in Canada, have amounted to the only criminal assault charge brought against him.
Unlike most states, in Pennsylvania, a district attorney can charge someone with a crime without getting an indictment from a grand jury.
With the next court date in July, we’ll have to see if Cosby’s accusers get the last laugh in this case.
He acknowledged giving Constand 1-1/2 pills of the antihistamine Benadryl to relax her and said the two engaged in heavy “petting”, including fondling each other’s genitals, Cheltenham Police Chief John Norris testified. She said he also urged her to sip wine even though she said had not eaten and didn’t want to drink.
Over the objection of defense lawyers, prosecutors opted not to call Constand to the stand, but instead had a former detective read aloud her detailed, first-person account of the incident.
Afterward, Constand’s statement said, Cosby sexually assaulted her.
The parties reached a civil settlement in 2006, but the case was reopened as new evidence came to light, including the number of other accusers coming forward and some of his remarks during a 2005 deposition that were recently unsealed. After the ruling, Cosby waived a formal arraignment, which means he automatically enters a plea of not guilty.
She claims she was aware of Cosby touching her breasts and genitals, and of him making her touch his genitals, but she could not speak, and felt paralysed. Cosby said he gave her the pills to address her stress. When asked about the effects of quaaludes on the girl, Bill Cosby said the young woman got “high”. And I don’t feel her say anything. However, Cosby’s deposition from that lawsuit was made public at the end of a year ago, and some startlingly incriminating statements from Cosby himself resulted in his arrest last December.
Advertisement
Prosecutors reopened the criminal case a year ago after dozens of women raised similar claims, and Cosby’s deposition in Constand’s lawsuit surfaced.
