The Associated Press does not normally identify people who say they were victims of sex crimes unless they agree to be named publicly, which Constand has done.
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The Cosby defense also sought to persuade O’Neill that prosecutors had not presented enough evidence to continue with the case.
O’Neill, said Thursday that he was adhering to a legal precedent that accusers are not required to testify at pretrial hearings.
“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”, the statement said.
Cosby’s lawyers said they’d appeal Thursday’s ruling to the state Supreme Court.
Cosby is set to stand trial for drugging and molesting Constand in 2004. Instead, detectives read a decade-old statement from Constand into the record at the hearing. Cosby’s team argues that the police statements are hearsay, and that the ruling therefore wasn’t fair because Constand herself didn’t testify. “A witness can say, ‘I never said that'”.
The judge ruled ruled the case can go forward without his sex assault accuser having to testify live at another hearing.
After a long legal battle, Montgomery County prosecutors were thought to have cleared the final obstacle in the way of bringing the comedian to trial when they prevailed in the 24 May hearing. Treatment of Cosby and his many alleged victims additionally sent the message that even if women are miraculously able to jump through the many hard, if not impossible, hoops thrown their ways, society will only truly believe them if their rapists confess, which very rarely happens.
Cosby maintains that any sexual contact he has had with his accusers – including encounters he acknowledges having with Constand – was consensual.
Constand, a Canadian citizen who claimed Cosby was serving as her mentor, told authorities that Cosby drugged her and then sexually assaulted her.
If found guilty on the criminal charges against him during trial, Cosby could face an upwards of 10 years behind bars in addition to some hefty fines. He explained at the time that there was insufficient credible and admissible evidence to result in a conviction. “It’s our position that we’re not going to re-traumatize victims”, Steele said when asked by Judge Steven T. O’Neill if his handling of the case was in line with the standard procedures of his office.
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Last year, prosecutors reopened the case after new accusations and evidence surfaced. The new district attorney, Steele, had promised during his election campaign to pursue Cosby on criminal charges if he were elected. At the time of the alleged assault, Constand was the director of operations for the women’s basketball team; she is now a massage therapist in Toronto, according to The Toronto Sun. Cosby was arrested in December.
