Cosby judge won’t step aside; lawyers to target accuser

The judge in Bill Cosby’s retrial rejected demands from the comedian’s defense lawyers to step aside during a Thursday hearing in which they made clear they plan to attack his accuser as a greedy liar who falsely accused him 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 the judge 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 the retrial.

The judge said the dona- tion was made 13 months ago by the department where his wife works at the University of Pennsylvania and he’s “not biased or prejudiced” by her work.

Jury selection is scheduled to begin Monday as the 80-year- old Cosby faces charges he drugged and molested former Temple University athletics administrator Andrea Constand at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004.

While Cosby’s lawyers sparred with the judge in court Thursday, they also are counting on him to make critical rulings to bolster their defense that Constand is a money-grubbing liar.

They want the judge to let them call Marguerite Jackson, who says Constand spoke of framing a celebrity before she went to police with allegations Cosby drugged and molested her in 2004. They also want to let jurors know how much Cosby paid her in a 2006 civil settlement.