COSBY JUDGE TO STAY
County Judge Steven T. O’Neill rejects demand to step aside over wife’s work
NORRISTOWN » A Montgomery County judge said he can be impartial and will continue to preside over the sexual assault retrial of actor Bill Cosby, turning down a defense request that he recuse himself because his wife works as an advocate for sexual assault victims.
“It is my duty to decide if I can preside impartially,” said Judge Steven T. O’Neill, declaring he has no bias as a result of his wife Deborah’s employment by the University of Pennsylvania as a certified social worker and coordinator of the Sexual Trauma Treatment Outreach and Prevention Team. “She’s an independent woman and has a right to be involved in anything that she believes in. She has absolutely no interest in the outcome of this case.”
O’Neill appeared to choke back tears and became emotional as he discussed his wife’s victim advocacy work and how Cosby’s lawyers made the “faulty” assertion that he and his wife share the same views and that he’s influenced by them.
“My spouse and I share the love of each other, our families…What we do not share are unified views of social and legal issues,” O’Neill maintained. “I am my own individual and make my decisions here. I will not be a factfinder in this case. I’m a gatekeeper.”
Defense lawyer Thomas Mesereau Jr. argued there is an “appearance of partiality” by O’Neill as a result of Deborah O’Neill’s work for an organization that provides care and support to students who have experienced sexual trauma.
“We are concerned that there may be an appearance of bias,” Mesereau argued for O’Neill’s recusal. “We’re talking about a combination of factors.”
Mesereau claimed Deborah O’Neill donated money to an activist group, V-Day UPenn, which has specifically targeted Cosby and
which has given money to another activist group that “has organized a public protest” to be held in front of the county courthouse during Cosby’s retrial.
But Judge O’Neill responded that the donation was made by the University of Pennsylvania department for which his wife works.
“I did my investigation…
because it’s my obligation to do so. I know that no marital assets were used,” O’Neill addressed the courtroom.
Prosecutors suggested Cosby’s request for the presiding judge to recuse himself from the actor’s upcoming sexual assault retrial was “a thinly-veiled attempt to delay” the case and should be denied.
“Dr. O’Neill has not stated anything about this case. There is absolutely no connection between Dr. O’Neill and this case,” county Deputy District Attorney Robert Falin argued.
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 Andrea Constand, a former Temple University athletic department employee, at his Cheltenham home after plying her with blue pills and wine sometime between mid-January and mid-February 2004.
Cosby has maintained his contact with Constand was consensual.
Jury selection is set to begin for the retrial on April 2. Testimony at the trial won’t get underway before Monday, April 9, according to testimony. Once the complete jury of 12 and six alternate jurors is selected that jury will be sequestered at an area hotel for the duration of the trial.
The judge withheld making a decision on Thursday about whether evidence of a civil settlement between Cosby and Constand can be introduced at the trial.
Co-defense lawyer Kathleen Bliss said the defense wants to introduce evidence of the lawsuit that Constand settled for an undisclosed sum with Cosby in October 2006, hinting at the defense strategy of financial motive and greed.
“It’s important to bring in the fact of the settlement. That’s the payday,” Bliss argued. “Andrea Constand had a motive and that was to get money by accusing someone falsely.”
Assistant District Attorney M. Stewart Ryan argued that if evidence of a civil settlement is permitted at trial, then evidence of the negotiations is also “relevant.”
Evidence of the confidential civil settlement between Cosby and Constand was not introduced at Cosby’s first trial, which ended in a mistrial last June when a jury could not reach a verdict.
Constand filed a civil suit against Cosby in March 2005, claiming sexual assault, the same allegations included in the current criminal case. The civil suit was filed after former District Attorney Bruce L. Castor Jr. decided not to charge Cosby criminally.
In October 2006, after three months of negotiations, that civil suit concluded with a settlement agreement, according to testimony.
Prosecutors argued that during the settlement negotiations Cosby and his lawyers requested that Constand release him from any future criminal liability and that she not voluntarily cooperate with prosecutors in exchange for the settlement. Those requests were rejected by Constand and her civil lawyers.
Cosby, according to prosecutors, also requested that Constand destroy all of the contents of the civil case including a deposition in which Cosby admits “to obtaining seven prescriptions for Quaaludes, never intending to ever take the powerful prescription pills himself and to giving Quaaludes to women that he wanted to engage in sexual contact with.”
Constand, according to papers filed by prosecutors, “ultimately agreed that she would not affirmatively initiate a criminal complaint” against Cosby for allegedly sexually assaulting her in 2004.
Prosecutors argued evidence of the settlement negotiations shows Cosby’s “consciousness of guilt.”
Cosby, 80, remains free on 10 percent of $1 million bail, pending the retrial.
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.