A Pennsylvania judge yesterday said there was enough evidence to proceed with a criminal trial, although it is not clear when this would begin.
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Montgomery County First Assistant District Attorney Kevin Steele brought the aggravated indecent assault charge against the famed actor and comedian late a year ago, stemming from an alleged incident that took place more than a decade earlier involving Andrea Constand, a Canadian native who then worked at Cosby’s alma mater Temple University.
NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) Bill Cosby’s lawyers gave a blistering preview of the questions the actor’s accuser will face at trial, as a judge refused to dismiss the sex-assault case at a preliminary hearing.
But prosecutors will argue that they should be heard to show that Cosby had a pattern of drugging and assaulting women. And from the perspective of someone who writes about culture, having a court case and a verdict in one of the Cosby cases might allow our conversations about his art to move forward. In the now public deposition, Cosby went on to admit two separate sexual encounters with a 17 year-old in 2000 and a 19 year old in 1976. Without taking into account the cases that are not feasible for trial, there are over 50 cases of sexual assault, to all of which Cosby pleas innocent.
Cosby told police that Constand never said “no” as he put his hand down her trousers and fondled her on the night in question in 2004.
The former prosecutor, Bruce Castor, has said he agreed not to press charges in exchange for Cosby’s testimony in a civil lawsuit filed by Constand.
Cosby is next due in court for arraignment on 20 July (16).
When detectives asked Cosby whether he had sexual intercourse with Constand, he told police, “Never asleep or awake”.
Constand had gone to him for career advice. Defense attorney Brian McMonagle pointed to the complainant’s absence throughout the hearing.
After her complaint, Cosby offered to pay her way through graduate school, according to a statement he gave Cheltenham police in 2005 that was introduced at the hearing.
“Mr. Cosby, good luck to you, sir”, the judge said.
“The point of this is that it was intoxicating here and that she was unable to consent”. Cosby is free on $1 million bail he posted last December.
No trial date has been set.
Cosby hasn’t yet had to face trial in criminal court, as numerous alleged offences occurred outside statute of limitation laws. She said her experience happened decades ago when she was just 24 years old. Cosby said Constand’s mother called him and confronted him about giving her daughter pills.
Over the course of the evening, Constand allegedly told Cosby she felt “drained” because she had been missing sleep.
Instead, portions of her statements to Pennsylvania detectives from 2005 were read in course, alleging Cosby told her to drink wine and take herbal medication before the alleged assault. Also read were excerpts of Cosby’s interview with police, in which he said that he had given her Benadryl, but she did not ask what they were, according to ABC News.
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Cosby settled with Constand in 2006 for a sum that was not revealed after testifying behind closed doors about his extramarital affairs, his use of quaaludes to sexually entice women and his efforts to hide payments to former lovers from his wife. “Women all over the country have fought against great odds to bring Mr. Cosby to trial, as we have”.
