Bill Cosby Returns To Court Before Retrial To Have Case Against Him Dismissed, But Judge Denies Bid
Bill Cosby's efforts to throw away the sexual misconduct case filed against him became futile when his request gets denied by a judge on Monday morning.
Just days after his daughter Ensa, 44, passed away because of kidney disease, the 80-year-old comedian yet again faced another disappointment. Before hearing of the bad news, Judge Steven T. O'Neill offered his condolences.
But his daughter's death had no bearing on the matter, as the official still rejected Cosby's bid to end the case. This happened on Monday in Pennsylvania at the Montgomery County Courthouse.
Cosby's legal team is led by powerhouse attorney Tom Mesereau, who also had Michael Jackson as a client. The lawyer argued that records for phone calls, travels, and the likes were not consistent with the victim's accounts.
They argued that Cosby was not in Pennsylvania at the time. However, O'Neill said he would leave it to the jury, thereby not dismissing the case.
It can be remembered that Andrea Constand, a Temple University official, said last year that she was drugged and taken advantage by Cosby in 2004. The incident reportedly happened at the actor's abode in Philadelphia.
But contrary to her account, Cosby said everything was consensual. The jury's deadlock in June last year rendered the case longer, so a retrial had to be set this year.
A Similar Pattern?
A second attempt was made by Cosby's team of lawyers, as they try to stop the accusers from saying their testimony in the April 2 retrial. The upcoming two-day trial could have 19 women taking the stand. More than 60 victims came out since October 2014, accusing the actor of sexual assault. Some of the incident dates back to the 60s.
These women have accused Cosby of sexual misconduct, and the prosecutors are trying to see whether these allegations have a pattern.
"All these instances involved shared similarities that bring them under the confines of a signature, or a common scheme or plan," prosecutor Adrienne Jappe said.
However, Cosby's defense team asked to lower down the number of women to take the stand against their client as some of these are "virtually impossible to defend against," citing the cases' age.
Additionally, the team said they're going to need more time to investigate each statement, therefore they would ask for a delay on the retrial.
Meanwhile, the allegations that are harrowing Cosby tainted his good guy image in the face of television. He was best known as Cliff Huxtable in his NBC sitcom The Cosby Show that aired from1984 to 1992.
