Judge refuses to throw out sex assault case against Cosby
By MARYCLAIRE DALE and MICHAEL R. SISAK

NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) — A judge refused to throw out the sexual assault case against Bill Cosby on Wednesday, sweeping aside claims that a previous district attorney had granted the comedian immunity from prosecution a decade ago.

Common Pleas Judge Steven O'Neill issued the ruling after a hard-fought two-day hearing.

The case now moves to a preliminary hearing to determine whether there is enough evidence to try the 78-year-old Cosby on charges he drugged and violated former Temple University athletic department employee Andrea Constand at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004. The TV star could get up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

In 2005, then-District Attorney Bruce Castor decided the case was too flawed to prosecute. But Castor's successors reopened the investigation last year after Cosby's lurid, decade-old testimony from Constand's civil suit was unsealed at the request of The Associated Press and after dozens of other women came forward with similar accusations that destroyed Cosby's nice-guy image as America's Dad.

At the hearing this week, Cosby's lawyers tried to get the case thrown out by putting Castor himself on the stand. Castor testified that in deciding not to charge Cosby, he intended to forever close the door on prosecuting the comedian. He said he considered his decision binding on his successors.

Similarly, Cosby's lawyers said they never would have let the TV star testify in the civil case if they didn't believe criminal charges were off the table.

"In this case, the prosecution should be stopped in its tracks," Cosby lawyer Chris Tayback argued. "Really what we're talking about here is honoring a commitment."

But current District Attorney Kevin Steele questioned whether Castor ever made such an agreement, since it was never put in writing on a legal document and the Cosby attorney with whom Castor dealt is now dead. Steele argued that in any case, Castor had no legal authority to make such a deal.

"A secret agreement that allows a wealthy defendant to buy his way out of a criminal case isn't right," Steele told the judge.

On the stand, Castor defended his decision not to bring charges, citing among other things Constand's yearlong delay in reporting the allegations, her continued contact with Cosby, and suggestions that she and her mother might have tried to extort the comic.

The former DA said he made the no-prosecution commitment in hopes of prodding Cosby to testify in Constand's lawsuit without invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. In the end, Cosby testified, denying he assaulted Constand but admitting among other things that he obtained quaaludes to give to women he wanted to seduce, and Constand eventually settled for an undisclosed amount.

As the case goes forward, Cosby's lawyers are expected to fight mightily to keep the deposition from being introduced at trial.

Castor tried to make a comeback as DA last fall but lost to Steele in a hotly contested race, during which Steele ran ads criticizing Castor for not prosecuting Cosby when he had the chance. The tension between the two men was on display Wednesday when Steele accused Castor and the Cosby camp of engaging in "revisionist history."

Most of the back-and-forth in court hinged on the wording and interpretation of a 2005 press release in which Castor announced he would not prosecute Cosby. Castor found himself sparring with prosecutors over many seemingly inconsistent statements he made over the years on whether Cosby could still be charged.

The judge said he struggled to find similar cases where a suspect who was never charged received a promise that he would never be prosecuted. Normally, immunity is granted after a suspect is charged because he or she can provide testimony or information to prosecutors.

While more than 50 women have accused Cosby of drugging and sexually assaulting them since the 1960s, the statute of limitations for prosecuting the comic has run out in nearly every instance. This is the only case in which he has been charged.
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Sisak reported from Philadelphia.


-- (c) Associated Press 2016-02-04

This is sad. Fifty women, fifty lie detector tests. And one for Cosby. You only need one positive !

This is sad. Fifty women, fifty lie detector tests. And one for Cosby. You only need one positive !

You're all bark, no bite. (Ha, ha....I just crack myself up sometimes.)

I hope he burns in hell, I saw the documentary of what he did to those women

and he should pay for what he did, he is a rapist and a pervert, so sad I used

to laugh at his jokes.

And to think he used to lecture Lisa Bonet and the US youth on its lack of morality. When you look up hypocrite in the dictionary there is a picture of Bill Cosby.

Why all the c..p about crosby. He is a serial sex offender.

Jail the barsteward for life.

He has destroyed many womens lives and has the gall to tryto defend himself. What a disgusting low life.

"suggestions that she and her mother might have tried to extort the comic." Did he come to Thailand sometime in his career and learn from the experts.?

I think what we are looking at here is "casting couch" romance, so common with celebrities and the powerful everywhere...most of these "victims" were well aware of what they were doing, but were looking to advance their careers by sleeping with an influential man...this has happened since the dawn of civilization. The "drugging" charge is also nonsense as even the victims admit they took the drugs willingly. Is Cosby a cad, a jerk? Probably. But that is not a criminal offence. If it were, everyone would be in jail at one time or another.