DEAL WITH THE DEVIL
DA who let Cosby slide testifies
Bill Cosby yesterday hobbled into a Pennsylvania courtroom, where an ex-DA testified he granted the comedian immunity in a 2004 sex-assault case — but hopes he’s convicted now.
A former Pennsylvania prosecutor testified at a pretrial hearing Tuesday that he granted Bill Cosby lifetime immunity in a 2004 sexassault case, despite believing Cosby’s accuser’s story of being drugged and molested by the nowdisgraced comic.
ExMontgomery County District Attorney Bruce Castor said he believed that accuser Andrea Constand was telling the truth, but he had promised Cosby’s lawyer that there would never be a criminal prosecution in the case because the DA didn’t think he could get a conviction.
Castor’s move would free up Cosby to be more forthcoming when deposed under oath in Constand’s civil suit, the DA reasoned, since there would be no fear of prosecution.
“I was hopeful that I had made Miss Constand a millionaire,’’ Castor said of the exemployee of Temple University in Philadelphia.
The “Cosby Show’’ star and Constand eventually reached a settlement in her suit, the details of which remain sealed.
But Castor’s highly unusual immunity pledge is now at the center of a criminal prosecution brought by the county’s current DA, Kevin Steele.
Ignoring his predecessor’s pact, Steele brought indecentassault charges against “America’s dad’’ in the case late last year, arguing that there is nothing in writing about any guaranteed immunity — and besides, only state judges have the power to grant it.
Cosby’s lawyers say a deal’s a deal — and the judge must toss the criminal charges because of it.
In yet another twist, Castor said he’s hoping his successor is able to legally upend the promise of immunity.
“Let’s be clear. I’m not on your team here. I want [prosecutors] to win,” Castor told Cosby’s lawyers.
Judge Steven O’Neill didn’t rule Tuesday, but hinted that he may be siding against the immunity deal. The judge seemed incredulous that Castor would make that kind of promise without putting it in writing.
“If you felt there was an agreement, why did you not make that agreement in writing with the plaintiff ’s attorney and yourself ? Create a miscellaneous docket and simply file it away, because your intention was to bar prosecution at all times,’’ O’Neill told Castor.
The exDA replied, “It was unnecessary because I concluded that there was no way the case could ever get any better.’’
But O’Neill continued to press Castor, asking again why the thenDA wouldn’t have made an attempt to get it on the record somewhere.
Castor at one point said he was acting as the “sovereign’’ of the state.
A fraillooking Cosby, 78, silently watched the proceeding in the Norristown, Pa., courtroom. He arrived hours earlier with an assistant on each arm helping him walk. Dressed in a tan suit, he carried a cane. Constand wasn’t in court.
After the hearing ended for the day, a crowd of about 50 supporters — many women with children, including teenage girls — screamed, “We love you, Bill!’’ as Cosby left the courthouse.
The actor didn’t say anything but smiled, clapped and gave them a thumb’s up.
About 60 women have accused Cosby of drugging and sexually assaulting them in attacks dating back to the 1960s. But Constand’s case is the first to prompt criminal charges, partly because of the statute of limitations involved in the other cases and also because of the hesaidshesaid aspect to them.
Steele has said Cosby’s deposition in Constand’s case, along with new accusers stepping forward, is what made the difference for the woman.
Even Castor testified Tuesday that he believed Constand was “inappropriately touched by Mr. Cosby” in the oncebeloved comedian’s mansion in the Philadelphia suburbs.
But “what I think and what is provable in a courtroom are two different things,” he said.
The former DA said Constand’s credibility was shot. It took her a year to tell cops — and only after seeking a lawyer for a civil suit — that Cosby had given her pills and then put his hand in her pants. She also admitted having been at Cosby’s home twice before that incident despite having been creeped out by him.
While Castor acknowledged that Cosby was caught on tape making statements that “could be construed as incriminating,’’ he told the judge the recordings had been obtained through illegal wiretaps made by Constand and her mother.
So Castor told the judge he had brokered what he considered a safe bet — assuring immunity for Cosby so Constand could at least cash in.
“Mr. Cosby was not getting prosecuted at all, ever,” Castor told O’Neill. “Once the possibility for all time of being prosecuted is removed, the ability to take the Fifth Amendment for all time is also removed.
“I wanted there to be some measure of justice . . . It does not mean she was not telling the truth,’’ he said.
Constand and her lawyers say they were unaware of any deal. Cosby’s lawyer at the time has since died.
Cosby eventually gave a deposition in Constand’s civil case — and it was damning.
In it, the longmarried actor admitted to giving Quaaludes to young women, including Constand, before sex.
“Cosby would’ve had to have been nuts to say those things if there was any chance he could’ve been prosecuted,” Castor noted.
Cosby faces up to 10 years behind bars if tried and convicted.