Cosby lawyer hosted fund-raiser for Castor
Bill Cosby's chief criminal defense lawyer hosted a campaign fund-raiser and donated $2,500 to a former Montgomery County district attorney months before calling him as a primary witness in a bid to derail the entertainer's sexual-assault trial.
Bill Cosby's chief criminal defense lawyer hosted a campaign fund-raiser and donated $2,500 to a former Montgomery County district attorney months before calling him as a primary witness in a bid to derail the entertainer's sexual-assault trial.
Details emerged Thursday as attorney Brian J. McMonagle sought to quash a subpoena from Cosby accuser Andrea Constand seeking details of any other political contributions that he, Cosby, or their employees may have made to Bruce L. Castor Jr. as he ran to try to reclaim his previous office months before testifying on the entertainer's behalf.
In filings in federal court in Philadelphia, McMonagle described the fund-raiser for the first time and said that the March 16, 2015, event came well before Cosby hired him. It was hosted by him and other local lawyers, he said.
Castor's campaign finance filings show other lawyers at McMonagle's firm donated at least $1,500 more that night.
"I have known Bruce L. Castor Jr. for many years," he wrote in filings in federal court in Philadelphia. "I have not made any donation of time or money to Mr. Castor's campaign after being engaged by Mr. Cosby in September 2015, nor have I participated in or coordinated in any such donations on anyone else's behalf."
He called the subpoena from Constand, issued March 7 in a separate civil suit against Castor alleging defamation, "a blatant attempt to disrupt Mr. Cosby's criminal defense and harass his attorney."
Constand's suit against Castor alleges he damaged her credibility with statements he made during last year's campaign.
His handling of the 2005 investigation into her allegations that she was drugged and assaulted by Cosby became a leading issue in the race, which Castor lost to Kevin R. Steele.
Steele, then first assistant district attorney, headed the investigation that led to Cosby's December arrest on counts of aggravated indecent assault.
In February, Castor testified as a defense witness in a hearing in which Cosby's lawyers contended that a promise Castor made to their client in 2005 should bar the current case from moving forward.
While on the stand, Castor said he chose not to prosecute Cosby a decade ago because he doubted Constand would hold up as a credible witness, due to her yearlong delay in reporting her alleged assault to police.
Instead, Castor told a County Court judge, he promised Cosby he would never be prosecuted if he sat for a deposition in a civil suit Constand had filed against him. "Andrea Constand's own actions during that year ruined her credibility," Castor testified.
Though the subpoena Constand's lawyers issued to McMonagle this month was part of her suit against Castor, their document requests appear to address their allegations in other litigation.
Last month, Cosby sued Constand, claiming that in cooperating with his current prosecution, she violated a confidentiality agreement they signed while settling her 2005 civil suit.
Constand's lawyers have denied the allegation and suggested Cosby may have broken the deal himself by sharing with Castor police reports, witness statements, and other documents compiled in the '05 investigation to refresh his memory before his February testimony.
Constand's subpoena to McMonagle seeks all documents Cosby's lawyers shared with Castor, a request McMonagle said Thursday was a violation of attorney-client privilege. U.S. District Judge Eduardo Robreno is expected to hear arguments on the subpoena in April.
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