Judge to Cosby: You’re Not Getting Out of This That Easy

Bill Cosby gives a thumbs-up as he leaves the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pa., Feb. 2, 2016.

A Pennsylvania judge late Wednesday dismissed defense efforts to have criminal sexual assault charges against comedian Bill Cosby thrown out, ruling that his trial can proceed.

Cosby is charged with drugging and violating former Temple University athletic department employee Andrea Constand at his suburban Philadelphia mansion in 2004.

“The chances of a trial are great because Bill Cosby is not taking a plea, (Steele) is not offering a plea that Bill Cosby would even consider, and there is legally sufficient evidence to charge him based on the testimony of (Constand) alone”, says NY defense attorney Stuart Slotnick, who’s been following the case. He said he reached into her trousers but insisted it was consensual.

Mr Schmitt said Cosby later sat for a deposition in Constand’s civil suit over four days and never once invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

According to his testimony on Tuesday (02Feb16), Castor believed Constand had been molested by Cosby but feared he couldn’t prove it a year after the alleged crime.

The judge said Wednesday he’s struggled to find similar instances where a suspect who wasn’t charged was granted such immunity.

The judge also denied a defence request to disqualify the prosecutor from the case.

Steele fired back that there was no part of his campaign that stated what would be done in the Cosby case.

As the legal proceeding unfold, Cosby continues to face recriminations in the court of public opinion.

Castor himself weighed in on why he’d made this decision, saying that he had done so because, at the time, he thought it’d facilitate Constand’s success in suing the comedian, since there wasn’t enough evidence for heavier prosecution. Without that deal in place, argued Cosby’s lawyers, he never would have given the deposition.

On Tuesday, Cosby’s lawyers called former prosecutor Bruce Castor as their primary witness. “Really what we’re talking about here is honoring a commitment”.

On cross examination, District Attorney Kevin Steele attacked the idea that Cosby’s lawyers would allow a deal that was never spelled out in a formal non-prosecution agreement. The two-day hearing reviewed Castor’s 2005 agreement and other arguments on the new defense. “The rabbit is in the hat and you want me at this point to assume, ‘Hey, the promise was made, judge”.

But there was nothing in writing about immunity, and the judge agreed with prosecutors that the criminal case against Cosby can go on. In deciding not to bring charges, he said, he meant to protect Cosby from prosecution “for all time”. He testified he hoped his decision not to press charges would encourage Cosby to cooperate.

And Cosby’s top legal adviser told O’Neill during his Wednesday appearance that he considered Castor’s promise the final word on bringing charges in the Constand case.

Cosby has been accused of rape, drugging and performing inappropriate sex acts by over 50 women in the past 18 months.