Cosby was present at the courthouse in Norristown, Pa today for a a preliminary hearing that lasted four hours.
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A judge ruled early Tuesday afternoon that there was enough evidence to move forward in the first criminal sexual assault case against Bill Cosby, who faces three felony charges of aggravated indecent assault. He faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.
On Monday evening, the Associated Press released portions of Bill Cosby’s deposition from his previous civil case from 2005-2006 that involved Andrea Constand. He hugged one of his lawyers.
Cosby’s lawyers repeatedly questioned the accuracy of Constand’s account, in what is likely a preview of their trial strategy. During the hearing, Cosby’s lawyers attacked the prosecution for not calling her as a witness, relying instead on a statement she gave to the police in 2005.
Serignese, formerly known as Therese Picking, was a 19-year-old model when she met Cosby in 1976. After taking the pills, she said, “everything was blurry and dizzy”.
She did not consent to any of this, she said. “I told him, ‘I can’t even talk, Mr. Cosby.’ I started to panic”.
In a statement given to police, Cosby said Constand never told him no during the “heavy petting” that happened at his home. Mr Cosby then told her to lie down on the couch and relax. She said she later awoke with her bra askew and did not remember undoing it.
Cosby watched as Detective Hart read a statement in which Constand recalled Cosby telling her that she’d feel better if she took the pills, which he said were Benadryl, and to “taste the wine”.
The third and final witness, a police sergeant, testified that Constand told him in a phone interview that the alleged assault may have been March 16, 2004; however, in another interview three days later, he said she told him the assault may have been in January or February.
Cosby’s camp continues to deny the validity of the claims, stating that the sexual encounter was indeed consensual.
Detectives also testified about a phone call that took place between Cosby and Constand’s mother.
“She should be in this courtroom”, defense attorney Brian McMonagle said, making an impassioned plea to the judge.
Dressed in a dark suit, Cosby waved toward cameras and walked into the courthouse in Norristown on Tuesday morning.
The case was reopened by prosecutors past year after dozens of women leveled similar allegations and after Cosby’s sealed deposition in the Constand’s lawsuit was made public.
The testimony and the barrage of allegations have all but destroyed Cosby’s nice-guy image from TV’s “Cosby Show”.
At the time that Steele filed charges in in December, Cosby’s attorneys said that they planned to “mount a vigorous defense against this unjustifed charge and we expect that Mr. Cosby will be exonerated by a court of law”.
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Cosby appeared at the hearing on Tuesday.
