D.A. wants 19 other accusers to testify at Bill Cosby’s sexual assault retrial
NORRISTOWN » Montgomery County prosecutors want a judge to allow 19 additional women who accuse entertainer Bill Cosby of sexual misconduct to testify at his upcoming retrial on charges he sexually assaulted one woman after plying her with pills and wine at his Cheltenham mansion in 2004.
“During this investigation, the Commonwealth investigated more than 50 other claims of defendant’s virtually identical drug-facilitated sexual assaults on young women,” District Attorney Kevin R. Steele wrote in court documents filed on Thursday.
With the request, Steele is taking another stab at having more alleged accusers testify against Cosby.
During Cosby’s first trial last June on charges he sexually assaulted Andrea Constand, a former Temple University athletic department employee, sometime between mid-January and mid-February 2004, Judge Steven T. O’Neill allowed prosecutors to present the testimony of only
one “prior alleged victim,” Kelley Johnson.
Johnson, 55, accused Cosby of engaging in sexual misconduct with her in 1996. Johnson testified she met Cosby around 1990 through her employment working as an assistant to Cosby’s personal appearance agent at the William Morris Agency.
Steele had asked the judge to allow a total of 13 other alleged Cosby accusers to testify at the first trial, but Judge O’Neill ruled on Feb. 24, 2017, that 12 of the women could not testify.
At the time, O’Neill’s ruling was 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.
With the new filing, Steele essentially is seeking a reconsideration of O’Neill’s Feb. 24, 2017 ruling. Steele argued a decision by a state court in a homicide case, “that was decided after” O’Neill’s February 2017 ruling, determined that certain “prior bad acts evidence” is admissible at a trial.
Steele argued the state court ruling addressed the so-called “doctrine of chances” or “doctrine of objective improbability.”
“Under this theory of logical
relevance, as the number of victims reporting similar, drug-facilitated sexual assaults by defendant increases, the likelihood that his conduct was unintentional decreases. It is simply a matter of probabilities,” Steele wrote.
The 19 women that Steele wants to testify at the retrial in April include Johnson and the 12 that Judge O’Neill previously said could not testify, as well as six others who are being proffered to the court for the first time.
Pointing out a mistrial was declared after Cosby’s first trial, Steele maintained “the grant of a new trial wipes the slate clean for purposes of rulings on the admissibility of evidence.”
“This evidence is relevant…to demonstrate a common scheme, plan or design,” Steele argued.
Steele added, “the evidence is relevant to establish that an individual who, over the course of decades, intentionally intoxicated young 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 any sexual contact.”
Attempts to reach Tom Mesereau, Cosby’s lead defense lawyer, were unsuccessful on Thursday. Cosby’s defense team also includes defense lawyers Samuel W. Silver, of Philadelphia, and Kathleen Bliss, of Las Vegas.
O’Neill has given prosecutors and the defense team until Jan. 25 to file all pretrial
motions in preparation for Cosby’s April 2 retrial. Steele, with is filing on Thursday, fired the first volley in the high-profile legal battle.
William Henry Cosby Jr., as his name appears on charging documents, faces three counts of aggravated indecent assault in connection with allegations he had inappropriate sexual contact with Constand. Cosby maintains his contact with Constand was consensual.
Cosby remains free on 10 percent of $1 million bail, pending the retrial.
Cosby faces a possible maximum sentence of 15 to 30 years in prison if convicted of the charges.
Cosby’s first trial ended in a mistrial last June 17 after a jury of seven men and five women selected from Allegheny County individually told the judge they were hopelessly deadlocked “on all counts” after deliberating more than 52 hours over six days. The deliberations took longer than the evidentiary portion of the trial.
Steele immediately vowed to seek a retrial.
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.
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.