Bill Cosby Returns to Court for Last Pre-Trial Hearing; Cosby’s Lawyers ask Judge to Toss Charges
Bill Cosby’s lawyers want his sexual assault case thrown out, arguing that telephone records, travel itineraries and other evidence show the alleged incident couldn’t have happened when prosecutors say it did.
They’re disputing accuser Andrea Constand’s testimony at Cosby’s first trial last year that the 80-year-old entertainer drugged and molested her at his suburban Philadelphia home in January 2004.
The judge denied requests from Bill Cosby’s lawyers to throw out his sexual assault case.
Judge Steven O’Neill on Monday denied a defense motion to dismiss the case on statute of limitations and prosecutorial misconduct grounds.
Cosby’s lawyers argued the alleged assault that led to his arrest couldn’t have happened in January 2004, as accuser Andrea Constand has testified, and falls outside the statute of limitations.
O’Neill said he’d leave that for the jury to decide.
Prosecutors are trying to persuade the judge to allow as many as 19 other accusers to testify as the retrial. They say the testimony is needed to counter the defense team’s “inevitable attacks” on Constand’s credibility.
