Despite his suspicions, Cosby continued to speak with Constand’s mother, discussing the possibility of paying for her graduate schooling.
Advertisement
She represents a woman suing Cosby, claiming he forced her to perform a sex act at the Playboy Mansion around 1974, when she was underage. Cosby was not charged in either case.
Bill Cosby’s legal defense team is blaming racial prejudice and “a barrage of new accusers” for the criminal sex-assault charges lodged against the actor in Pennsylvania.
Outside the courthouse, Cosby’s lawyers argued that the African-American star is a victim of racism.
Cosby said, at one point, his voice loud enough to be heard beyond the well of the courtroom.
“The time has come to shine a spotlight on the trampling of Mr. Cosby’s civil rights”, Cosby’s lawyer said in the statement. The statement says Cosby has been “no stranger to racial discrimination and hatred” throughout his career.
On the same day a trial date was set for Bill Cosby, prosecutors filed a motion seeking to allow 13 other women who say they were drugged and assaulted by the entertainer to testify. O’Neill made it known he would prefer the trial begin sooner, to protect the 79-year-old Cosby’s right to a speedy trial.
He eventually offered them pills or drinks that he encouraged them to take and that made them feel incapacitated – one said she felt “disoriented”, another “blacked out” – and Cosby made nonconsensual sexual advances.
The judge has not yet ruled on the motion.
The judge presiding over the Temple alumnus’ criminal sexual assault case says the former comedian’s trial will start no later than June 5, 2017 and that there is enough evidence against Cosby to proceed.
If the prosecution is allowed to call the other women as witnesses, it would bring to a legal forum what until now has played out predominantly in the media.
He told her to take two white pills and then sexually assaulted her in a green room, she said.
Cosby faces three counts of aggravated indecent assault resulting from a sexual encounter with Andrea Constand in 2004.
During the hearing, defense attorneys also said they will request the case be moved to a different county in Pennsylvania, as well as file a motion alleging their client’s constitutional right to a speedy trial have been violated and thus charges should be dismissed.
Steele said Tuesday that all 13 women were willing to testify if permitted by the judge.
Steele’s motion intends to use the testimonies of 13 women identified as prior victims to establish a larger pattern of abuse..
Judge O’Neill postponed hearing arguments on the filing at the Tuesday hearing, giving the defense team more time to review the copious material. Since the case was reopened in December, Constand has not appeared in court to face Cosby.
Advertisement
Constand, now 43 and living in Canada, was not present at the preliminary hearings for the trial and a detective read in court the testimony she gave to police 11 years ago. He wore a light gray sports coat with dark stripes and entered holding a man’s arm and carrying a cane.
