High court to hear Bill Cosby appeal

NORRISTOWN » The Pennsylvania Supreme Court will review actor Bill Cosby’s Montgomery County sexual assault conviction, according to an order filed on Monday, which granted Cosby’s petition for allowance of appeal.

However, the court limited the review to two issues including, county Judge Steven T. O’Neill’s decision to allow five other accusers of uncharged misconduct to testify at Cosby’s April 2018 trial and whether Cosby had a binding agreement with former District Attorney Bruce L. Castor Jr. in 2005 that he would never be prosecuted for sexual assault.

It’s unclear if the state court will schedule a date for in-person or virtual arguments or seek legal briefs from the lawyers while weighing the issues.

“We’re extremely thankful to the State Supreme Court of Pennsylvania for agreeing to review Mr. Cosby’s appeal,” Cosby spokesman Andrew V. Wyatt reacted to the court’s decision on Tuesday. “As we have all stated, the false conviction of Bill Cosby is so much bigger than him it’s about the destruction of ALL Black people and people of color in America.”

Wyatt added the ruling comes at a time when people are protesting for racial justice, adding “these extremely vital and important protests are exposing the corruption that lies within the criminal justice system.”

District Attorney Kevin R. Steele said prosecutors remain confident Cosby’s conviction will be upheld by the high court.

“The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has narrowed the issues on appeal, limiting them to prior bad acts and the sovereign edict,” Steele said in a statement. “We look forward to briefing and arguing these issues and remain confident in the trial court and Superior Court’s previous decisions.”

Last December, the state Superior Court upheld Cosby’s conviction and Cosby, who is represented by defense lawyer Brian W. Perry, turned to the Supreme Court for a review.

Once admired as “America’s Dad,” Cosby, now 82, was sentenced on Sept. 25, 2018, to 3 to 10 years in state prison on charges of aggravated indecent assault in connection with sexually assaulting Andrea Constand, a former Temple University athletic department employee, after drugging her with “three blue pills,” while she visited his Cheltenham home in January 2004.

O’Neill imposed the punishment and labeled the actor a sexual predator and made him America’s first celebrity to be imprisoned in the #MeToo era.

A jury of comprised of seven men and five women, after 14 hours of deliberations, convicted Cosby of the charges during an April 2018 retrial.

William Henry Cosby Jr., as his name appears on court documents, is serving his sentence at the State Correctional Institution at Phoenix in Skippack Township.

Cosby’s lawyers are challenging O’Neill’s decision to permit five other women to testify at the retrial about alleged sexual misconduct by Cosby whereas during Cosby’s first trial in June 2017, which ended in a mistrial, the judge only allowed one other woman to testify.

Steele and then co-prosecutors M. Stewart Ryan and Kristen Feden maintained the testimony of the other accusers was “strikingly similar” to Constand’s claims and were relevant “to establish a common plan, scheme or design” for the jury.

But Cosby’s lawyers maintained the accusations of other women were “unduly remote in time” in that the allegations were more than 15 years old, some dating back to he 1970s, and prejudicial and should not have been permitted during the trial.

Cosby’s defense team also argued that O’Neill should not have allowed the case to go to trial because Cosby had a 2005 agreement with Castor, district attorney from 2000 to 2008, that Cosby would never be prosecuted in connection with Constand’s claims. During previous testimony, Castor claimed as a “sovereign” entity he had the authority to make the decision.

Cosby’s lawyers contend the 2005 agreement was negotiated for the express purpose of inducing Cosby to testify in Constand’s civil litigation against him. That agreement removed from Cosby the ability to claim his Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination, thus forcing him to sit for a deposition under oath in the civil case in 2005 and 2006, the defense lawyers claimed.

Steele argued the 2005 agreement never existed.

Current prosecutors reopened the investigation in July 2016 after Cosby’s deposition connected to the 2005 civil suit was unsealed by a judge. In that deposition, Cosby gave damaging testimony, admitting he obtained quaaludes to give to women with whom he wanted to have sex.

Defense lawyers argued evidence of Cosby’s deposition testimony about quaaludes also should not have been permitted at trial.