Bill Cosby lawyers fight to keep other accusers out of retrial
Bill Cosby’s lawyers are fighting attempts by prosecutors to call 19 additional women who accuse the actor of sexual misconduct to testify at his upcoming retrial on charges he sexually assaulted one woman at his Cheltenham mansion in 2004.
“While the prospect of trotting out 19 other accusers makes for a splashy headline, it does nothing to advance the goal of fairly deciding Bill Cosby’s guilt or innocence,” the defense team led by Los Angeles lawyer Thomas Mesereau Jr. wrote in papers filed in Montgomery County Court. “Admitting evidence of even just one of these uncharged and unproven accusations would be highly prejudicial.”
Mesereau and co-defense lawyers Kathleen Bliss, Jason Hicks, Becky S. James and Lane L. Vines added that if Judge Steven T. O’Neill allows any or all of the 19 other alleged accusers to testify, then Cosby “would be compelled to seek, and would be entitled to,” a postponement of the April 2 retrial date.
While Cosby “has been diligently preparing” for the retrial, “given the number of accusers, remoteness of accusations and the differences in each accusation,” he cannot “thoroughly and diligently investigate” the 19 accusations by April 2, defense lawyers wrote.
O’Neill has set March 5 and 6 for a hearing on the pretrial issue.
During Cosby’s first trial last June on charges he sexually assaulted Andrea Constand, a former Temple University athletic department employee in January 2004, O’Neill allowed prosecutors to present the testimony of only one other accuser, or “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.
District Attorney Kevin R. Steele had asked the judge to allow a total of 13 other alleged Cosby accusers to testify at the first trial, but the judge ruled in February 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.
After Cosby’s first trial ended in a mistrial Steele sought a retrial and now is asking O’Neill to reconsider his earlier ruling and allow 19 other accusers to testify. 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.
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.
“This evidence is relevant…to demonstrate a common scheme, plan or design,” Steele argued.
But Mesereau argued the judge “recognized the impropriety” of such testimony when he excluded 12 other alleged accusers from the first trial.
“Nothing has changed to make their testimony any more relevant or any less prejudicial; indeed, the six additional accusers the commonwealth now seeks to introduce are even less credible and less relevant than the original 13,” Mesereau wrote.
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 has maintained his contact with Constand was consensual.
Cosby, 80, 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.
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.