Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
COURT DRAMA
Cosby case thrusts region into the national spotlight
Comedian and actor Bill Cosby began 2016 accused of the 2004 sexual assault of a woman at his Chel- tenham mansion and the legal wrangling that ensued thrust Montgomery County into the national spotlight.
National media camped out at the courthouse when Cosby, 79, made appearances at his preliminary hearing in May and at several pretrial hearings in July, September, November and December.
Along the way, Cosby lost several key pretrial battles at which he sought to dismiss the charges on grounds he had a 2005 non-prosecution promise from a former district attorney; sought to force the alleged victim, Andrea Constand, to testify at his preliminary hearing; and sought to keep alleged incriminating testimony he gave during a civil deposition out of his upcoming
June 5, 2017, trial.
Cosby ended the year waiting for a ruling from Judge Steven T. O’Neill, who is deciding if 13 other women who accuse the entertainer of uncharged sexual misconduct can testify at his trial on charges he sexually assaulted Constand. O’Neill’s ruling on that issue isn’t expected until early 2017.
The June trial is expected to garner worldwide attention.
Cosby faces charges of aggravated indecent assault in connection with his alleged contact with Constand, a former Temple University athletic department employee, after plying
her with blue pills and wine at his Cheltenham home sometime between mid-January and mid-February 2004. The charges were lodged against Cosby by former District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman, now a county judge, last Dec. 30 before the 12-year statute of limitations to file charges expired.
O’Neill’s ruling last month that Cosby’s civil deposition testimony could be heard by a jury was considered a major legal setback. District Attorney Kevin R. Steele claims Cosby provided incriminating testimony connected with a 2005 civil suit brought against him by Constand and successfully argued a jury should be permitted to hear that testimony.
In that deposition, Cosby,
according to court documents, admitted that in the past he obtained Quaaludes to give to women with whom he wanted to have sex. Prosecutors contend Cosby also admitted for the first time to developing a romantic interest in Constand when he saw her at a Temple basketball game and to having sexual contact with Constand.
Cosby has suggested the contact was consensual and he and his lawyers Brian J. McMonagle and Angela C. Agrusa had asked the judge to prevent his civil deposition from ever being heard by a jury.
While Steele contended the incriminating testimony is admissible, McMonagle argued that Cosby relied on a so-called 2005 “non-prosecution promise” provided by former District Attorney Bruce L. Castor Jr. when he agreed to testify in the civil suit brought by Constand and therefore any evidence derived from his deposition cannot be used against him.
But Steele and co-prosecutors
M. Stewart Ryan and Kristen Feden argued there was no previous, valid nonprosecution promise and that Castor did not promise Cosby that he would never be prosecuted. Prosecutors contend that even if Castor had made such a representation, and even if Cosby had relied on it, his reliance was unreasonable.
O’Neill concluded “that there was neither an agreement nor a promise not to prosecute, only an exercise of prosecutorial discretion,” memorialized in a Feb. 17, 2005, press release issued by Castor.
“There is no basis in the record to support the contention that there was ever an agreement or a promise not to prosecute the defendant. Because there was no promise, there can be no reliance on the part of the defendant and principles of fundamental fairness and due process have not been violated,” O’Neill wrote in his “conclusions of law” attached to his decision last month.
The case represents the
first time Cosby, who played Dr. Cliff Huxtable on “The Cosby Show” from 1984 to 1992, has been charged with a crime despite allegations from dozens of women who claimed they were assaulted by the entertainer.
It’s not the first time the defense strategy hinged on the so-called “non-prosecution promise.”
In February, McMonagle raised the alleged 2005 Castor promise to try to have the charges dismissed against Cosby, but O’Neill rejected that argument then.
Castor, district attorney from 2000 to 2008, previously claimed there wasn’t enough “reliable and admissible” evidence to criminally charge Cosby in 2005.
Cosby’s lawyers contend the 2005 non-prosecution promise was made for the express purpose of inducing Cosby to testify in Constand’s civil litigation against him, removing from him the ability to claim his Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination, “thus forcing him to sit for a deposition under oath in a civil case” in 2005 and 2006.
Defense lawyers claimed
Steele “repudiated the agreement” and based the criminal charges lodged against Cosby last December on testimony Cosby gave during the deposition connected to the civil suit.
Cosby was deposed in connection with the lawsuit over four days in September 2005 and March 2006. The suit ultimately settled for an undisclosed amount on July 13, 2006.
Current prosecutors reopened the criminal investigation in July 2015 after portions of Cosby’s deposition connected to the civil suit were unsealed by a federal judge and his alleged damaging testimony was exposed.
If convicted of the charges at trial, William Henry Cosby Jr., as his name appears on charging documents, faces a possible maximum sentence of 15 to 30 years in prison. He remains free on 10 percent of $1 million bail, pending trial.
The newspaper does not normally identify victims of sex crimes without their consent but is using Constand’s name because she has identified herself publicly.