Judge: One other accuser can testify
Prosecutor had asked judge to allow 13 other women to testify at the trial
Only one of 13 other women who accuse entertainer Bill Cosby of sexual misconduct can testify against him at his upcoming trial on charges he sexually assaulted one woman at his Cheltenham mansion in 2004, a judge has ruled.
In a one-page order, Montgomery County Judge Steven T. O’Neill on Friday ruled prosecutors can present the testimony of “prior alleged victim six” at Cosby’s trial on charges he sexually assaulted Andrea Constand, a former Temple University athletic department employee, after plying her with blue pills and wine at his home sometime between mid-January and mid-February 2004.
District Attorney Kevin R. Steele had asked the judge to allow a total of 13 other alleged Cosby accusers to testify at the trial, but Judge O’Neill ruled 12 of the women cannot testify.
“This ruling is important as the jury will now be allowed to assess evidence that is relevant to establishing a common plan, scheme and design of sexual abuse and an absence of mistake by the defendant,” Steele reacted to the judge’s decision.
Defense lawyers Brian J. McMonagle and Angela C. Agrusa had fought to keep out the testimony of all 13 women. McMonagle and Agrusa were unavailable for comment about the judge’s ruling and it’s unclear if they will appeal
it to a higher court.
O’Neill’s ruling is considered one of the major pretrial legal decisions in the Cosby case. Legal insiders believed the key to the prosecution’s case against Cosby was the admissibility of evidence involving alleged accusers who came forward after Constand’s allegations came to light.
“Victim six,” the one O’Neill will allow to testify, is identified in court papers as a 29-year-old woman who met Cosby around 1990 and was an assistant to Cosby’s personal appearance agent at the time. The woman claimed Cosby sexually assaulted her during a lunchtime meeting in 1996 at the actor’s bungalow at
the Bel Air Hotel in Los Angeles after offering her some red wine and a white pill to relax, according to court papers. The woman claimed she became incapacitated and was unable to consent to or to resist Cosby’s unwanted sexual advances, prosecutors alleged.
Cosby, 79, faces a June 5 trial on charges of aggravated indecent assault in connection with his alleged contact with Constand. 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, some of whom have filed civil suits, who claimed they were assaulted by the entertainer.
During a hearing in December, Steele and co-prosecutors M. Stewart Ryan and Kristen Feden argued the 13 women were victims of Cosby’s uncharged sexual misconduct from the 1960s through the 1990s and should be permitted to testify at Cosby’s trial on charges in connection with his alleged contact with
Constand.
Prosecutors argued the testimony is relevant “to establish a common plan, scheme or design” for the jury and “to establish that an individual, who over the course of decades intentionally intoxicated women in a signature fashion and then sexually assaulted them while they were incapacitated, could not have been mistaken about whether or not Ms. Constand was conscious enough to consent to the sexual abuse.”
Steele claimed there are “remarkable similarities” between Cosby’s alleged contact with Constand and his contact with 13 other alleged accusers. Steele alleged those similarities show a pattern of serial sexual abuse by Cosby.
The similarities, prosecutors claimed, include that Cosby was a married man at the time of the alleged encounters, that he was “a mentor” to the women and used his status and notoriety to get close to them, that he sought out significantly younger women and that he plied the alleged victims with an
intoxicant and assaulted them when they were incapacitated.
Steele argued he needed the testimony of the 13 other alleged accusers to prove Constand’s claim that she did not consent to sexual contact with Cosby and to counter inevitable defense attacks on Constand’s credibility at trial.
But McMonagle and Agrusa claimed prosecutors are desperate to salvage a weak sexual assault case against the entertainer by trying to admit “time barred, ancient and vague accusations” of the 13 other women. Defense lawyers argued that such testimony would be unfairly prejudicial to Cosby and should not be permitted.
When the accusations of the 13 women are compared to Constand’s claims there are more differences than similarities, defense lawyers argued.
McMonagle and Agrusa argued the women have shared their stories with one another to the point their recollections are “tainted” or “deliberately manipulated.”
Ten of the 13 women, according to defense lawyers, did not come forward until more than a decade after the prosecution’s highly publicized 2005 investigation of Constand’s allegations. Many of the 13 women are represented by well-known celebrity lawyer Gloria Allred and have launched media campaigns, making their claims suspect, defense lawyers claimed.
McMonagle implied Allred “spoon-fed” the accusers to prosecutors after the charges were lodged against Cosby on Dec. 30, 2015. In court papers, defense lawyers identified alleged “victim six” as one of Allred’s clients.
If convicted of the charges at trial, Cosby 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.
“This ruling is important as the jury will now be allowed to assess evidence that is relevant to establishing a common plan, scheme and design of sexual abuse and an absence of mistake by the defendant.” — Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin R. Steele