Bill Cosby was set to appear Thursday in court, where his lawyers will ask a judge to either throw out his criminal sex assault case or let him face his accuser before trial.
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A crush of reporters, photographers and camera crews outside the Montgomery County courthouse covered the arrival of Cosby, 78, whose lawyers will argue that the accuser, Andrea Constand, should be required to testify and answer questions from the defense before the case is permitted to proceed to trial.
A judge ruled at the May hearing that there was enough evidence to move the case to trial.
They say a lower court found probable cause this spring based exclusively on decade-old police statements.
But Judge Steven T. O’Neill said that a 2013 change in state court rules cleared the way for prosecutors to use those statements and other evidence in lieu of forcing Constand to take the witness stand before trial.
“Once again the prosecution in this case had the opportunity and the obligation to place this witness under oath so that we could conduct a search for the truth”. “Today a man who has meant so much to so many; a man who has given so much to so many; has had his constitutional rights trampled on”.
Prosecutors say the right of defendants like Bill Cosby to confront their accusers in court doesn’t apply at Pennsylvania preliminary hearings.
Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele said Thursday he’s using a recent rule change to spare Cosby accuser Andrea Constand and other sex crime victims from being re-traumatized.
The entertainer’s high-powered defense team attempted to persuade O’Neill, the presiding judge in the case, to erase Magistrate Elizabeth A. McHugh’s decision in May to order a trial and either dismiss the charges against Cosby or force prosecutors to call Constand as a witness, instead of relying on police notes from interviews with the alleged victim.
Constand, a former basketball coach at Cosby’s alma mater Temple University, has accused him of drugging her and then assaulting her on a couch.
They also considered the dozens of other women who have raised similar claims in the decade since Constand went to police in 2005.
Prosecutors in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, chose not to call Constand as a witness at a preliminary hearing in May.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court is reviewing whether that type of second-hand testimony can be used as evidence before trial. Cosby has admitted giving her the allergy medication Benadryl but maintained they engaged in consensual acts.
Steele read excerpts from Cosby’s deposition in court and said his graphic description of the encounter shows “consciousness of guilt”. During his remarks to the judge, Steele compared what happened on the night of the alleged incident to “date rape”.
“She is not in a state that she is able to consent to any of this”, Steele said.
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The actor was known as America’s Dad for his beloved portrayal of Dr. Cliff Huxtable on his top-ranked TV show, which ran from 1984 to 1992. For the protection of AP and its licensors, content may not be copied, altered or redistributed in any form. Doing so may result in civil and/or criminal penalties.
