Pa. court rejects Cosby's latest appeal, clearing path to trial
The Pennsylvania Superior Court on Wednesday rejected Bill Cosby's latest bid to halt or delay his sexual-assault case, clearing the path to a trial in Montgomery County.
The Pennsylvania Superior Court on Wednesday rejected Bill Cosby's latest bid to halt or delay his sexual-assault case, clearing the path to a trial in Montgomery County.
The one-sentence order shot down the only pending appeal in Cosby's case. The Superior Court and state Supreme Court have turned down other requests this year by Cosby's defense lawyers to consider dropping the charges against him.
But Cosby's lawyers vowed Wednesday to take their latest appeal to the Supreme Court, arguing the entertainer's accuser should have been forced to testify and face cross-examination at a pretrial hearing in May.
Instead of using direct testimony from Andrea Constand that day, prosecutors relied on statements she gave to police a decade ago.
A magisterial district judge found the evidence sufficient to hold Cosby for trial.
Cosby's lawyers appealed first to the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas, arguing that Cosby was denied the right to confront his accuser in court before trial.
After Judge Steven T. O'Neill ruled that it was "perfectly proper" to hold the hearing without her direct testimony, Cosby's legal team appealed to Superior Court. It asked that the charges be dropped or for the court to order a new hearing at which Constand had to testify.
Prosecutors asked the court to reject that argument, which it did. District Attorney Kevin R. Steele was pleased with the ruling, said his spokeswoman, Kate Delano.
Brian J. McMonagle, Cosby's lead defense lawyer, said he was planning to appeal to the state Supreme Court. Earlier this year, the court agreed to take up the same issue in a separate case: the review of a Superior Court ruling that approved the use of police statements from accusers as prosecutors' only evidence at preliminary hearings.
"The right to confront one's accusers is a right worth fighting for, and they have taken that right away from us," McMonagle said.
Cosby, 79, is charged with aggravated indecent assault for allegedly drugging Constand at his Cheltenham home in 2004. His trial is scheduled for June.
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