Judge won’t step aside as lawyers target accuser
NORRISTOWN, Pa.—The judge in Bill Cosby’s retrial rejected demands Thursday from the comedian’s defense lawyers to step aside during a hearing in which they made clear they plan to attack his accuser as a greedy liar who falsely accused the comedian of sexually assaulting her to collect a payoff.
Judge Steven O’Neill shot down what amounted to a last-ditch effort to postpone the trial by defense lawyers who lost their bid to overturn his ruling allowing up to five additional accusers to testify against Cosby.
Lawyers argued he should remove himself because his wife is a social worker and advocate for assault victims, pointing to a $100 donation made in her name to an organization that gave money to a group planning a protest outside of the retrial.
O’Neill said that was made 13 months ago by the department where his wife works at the University of Pennsylvania and that he’s “not biased or prejudiced” by her work.
Jury selection is scheduled to begin Monday as the 80-year-old Cosby faces charges that he drugged and molested former Temple University athletics administrator Andrea Constand at his home in 2004.
While they sparred with him in court Thursday, Cosby’s lawyers are also counting on him to make critical rulings to bolster their defense that Constand is a money-grubbing liar.
They want O’Neill to let them call Marguerite Jackson, a woman who says Constand spoke of framing a celebrity before she went to police with allegations that Cosby drugged and molested her in 2004. They also want to let jurors know how much Cosby paid her in a 2006 civil settlement.
“Those are the bookends: I have a motive and I have a payoff,” lawyer Kathleen Bliss argued. “The jury should be allowed to view the full context of that.”
Assistant District Attorney Kristen Fedden said that they doubt the discussion with Jackson happened and Constand’s lawyer has said that Jackson is “not telling the truth.”
O’Neill blocked Jackson from testifying at the first trial because he said her testimony would be hearsay. Prosecutors want him to do the same for the retrial.
Prosecutors say the theory that Constand wanted to set up Cosby is undermined by the comedian’s testimony in a 2005 deposition that she only visited his home when invited and that he gave her pills without her asking for them.
Prosecutors also argued the settlement is irrelevant to the criminal case, but that if it is allowed in, jurors should also hear about negotiations that led to the settlement.
Assistant District Attorney Stewart Ryan contended that Cosby’s negotiators initially asked that he be released from any criminal liability and tried to bar Constand from cooperating with law enforcement. He said that amounts to obstruction of justice.
“Those things are inconsistent with a person who believes he’s innocent,” Ryan said.