Comedian Bill Cosby on Tuesday sought to derail Pennsylvania prosecutors’ effort to make him stand trial on sexual assault charges.
Cosby contended that a deal reached over a decade ago gave him immunity from prosecution.
An entertainer, who built a career on family-friendly comedy, Cosby now faces accusations from more than 50 women that he sexually assaulted them, often after plying them with drugs and alcohol, in a series of attacks dating to the 1960s.
Prosecutors late last year charged Cosby, 78, with sexually assaulting Andrea Constand, a former basketball coach at his alma mater, Temple University, just days before the statue of limitations to bring charges ran out.
Constand’s allegations are the only ones to have resulted in criminal charges against Cosby, although he also faces a series of civil lawsuits related to alleged rapes.
Cosby has long denied wrongdoing and his lawyers have asked the judge to dismiss the Constand case.
Former Montgomery County District Attorney, Bruce Castor, testified on Tuesday that he decided in 2005 not to bring charges over the Constand allegations.
A 2005 press release in which Castor said Cosby would never be prosecuted was read out in court, with defence attorneys contending it represented a non-prosecution agreement.
No other written record of that agreement has been presented by either side.
Castor, called to testify at a pre-trial hearing by Cosby’s lawyers, said he feared Constand’s credibility as a witness could have been undermined because she waited a year to file her criminal complaint against Cosby and hired a lawyer to explore a civil lawsuit.
NAN.
Trending
- Police arrest 16 cultists, declare 21 others wanted in Anambra
- Nigeria needs death sentence for embezzlers of commonwealth — Dr. Mayegun
- LG election: Makinde urges residents to take outcome of election in good faith
- Bobrisky and tax reforms in Nigeria, by Abiodun Komolafe
- Primate Ayodele crashes price of rice to N15,000, awards scholarship, plants new church
- I hate Mohbad more even in death, says Naira Marley’s associate
- Abuja American International school refunds Yahaya Bello’s $760,910 to EFCC
- LG election: We’re responding to late arrival of materials – OYSIEC Chairman