The actor’s lawyers claimed that the Montgomery County District Attorney’s office made a no-prosecution deal a decade ago that is still in force, but the current DA argued it wasn’t a binding agreement.
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A lawyer for a woman who accuses Bill Cosby of sexually assaulting her in 2004 says the comedian didn’t testify freely in a lawsuit on the case.
The case in question stems from allegations made by former Temple University employee Andrea Constand. Castor has said there was an oral non-prosecution agreement worked out with Cosby’s former attorney Walter Phillips Jr., who died a year ago. He has not yet entered a plea.
She’d sought justice in 2005, but at the time, it was ruled that there was “insufficient credible and admissible evidence” that Cosby had assaulted Constand in her home.
Castor testified for almost seven hours Tuesday, saying in February 2005 he promised not to prosecute Cosby – ever – if he did not invoke his 5th amendment rights not to incriminate himself in a not-yet filed civil suit.
“There’s no other witness to the promise”, O’Neill said. He said he found serious flaws in the case in 2005 and declined to bring charges. “The decision reached by the court was wrong”, he said.
Cosby’s lawyers also argued that the 10-year delay since the alleged incident had also “greatly prejudiced” their client. “I was hopeful that I had made Ms. Constand a millionaire”, testified Castor, who said he was hoping to help make life easier for Constand, reported NBC News.
Cosby admitted in the deposition that he had affairs with young models and actresses that he obtained quaaludes to give to women he wanted to have sex with and that he gave Constand three pills at his home. That lawsuit was unsealed last summer and led to the charges brought forth against Cosby in December.
Court documents allege Cosby then fondled Constand.
“I hereby find no basis to grant the relief requested” by the defense attorneys, said Judge Steven O’Neill in a suburban Philadelphia courtroom.
More than 50 women have publicly alleged sexual abuse by the pioneering black comedian, who attained his greatest fame for his role as a lovable obstetrician and family man in the hit 1980s sitcom “The Cosby Show“.
“This motion by Mr. Cosby to have his criminal case dismissed was just the latest in a long string of unsuccessful legal maneuvers by him to try to avoid having a jury decide his guilt or innocence”, Allred continued.
The attorneys said if they knew Cosby could have been criminally tried, he would have never testified in the first place. “I want them to win”.
Dolores Troiani, one of Constand’s attorneys, said they were pleased with the decision.
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