Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Prosecutors ask judge to allow Cosby’s accusers to testify
NORRISTOWN, Pa. — Bill Cosby used his fame to gain the trust of women before knocking them out with pills and drinks so he could sexually assault them, prosecutors argued Tuesday as they sought to persuade a judge to allow 13 of Cosby’s accusers to testify in the 79-year-old entertainer’s upcoming sexual assault trial.
Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele told a judge he wants the accusers’ testimony to show that Cosby had a lengthy history of drugging and molesting young women. Cosby is charged with sexually assaulting a woman at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004.
“The defendant has engaged, over the course of decades, in a signature pattern of non-consensual sexual assaults on young women who were in an unconscious state due to an intoxicant that the defendant administered to them,” Steele argued.
Cosby’s lawyers want the accusers barred from taking the stand. The defense is expected to attack the women’s credibility and relevance when his lawyers make their arguments Wednesday.
Judge Steven O’Neill must decide whether to permit all or some of the women to testify under a state law that allows prosecutors to call witnesses of alleged prior bad acts. The accusers include onetime aspiring actresses, a cocktail waitress and a flight attendant, and are among 50 women who have come forward with accusations against Cosby.
The hearing was testy from the start, with O’Neill twice warning the lawyers to maintain decorum after courtroom shouting matches that centered on the defense team’s practice of publicizing the names of the accusers.
Steele clashed with Cosby lawyer Brian McMonagle over the defense’s insistence on identifying accusers by name in public documents and a court hearing. Steele suggested that Cosby’s lawyers were publicizing them in an attempt to intimidate the women.
McMonagle said many of the women had already gone public.
“These are witnesses in a trial. They are not children,” he argued.
O’Neill ultimately ruled Cosby’s lawyers could identify 11 of the women by name since they’d already told their stories publicly. He said two of the women have remained out of the spotlight and shouldn’t be identified in court.