Limiting accusers is goal of lawyers
NORRISTOWN — Lawyers for Bill Cosby will battle in court starting today as they try to limit the number of other accusers who can testify at his sexual assault trial.
Prosecutors hope to call 13 other women to show that the comedian and actor had a pattern of drugging and molesting women. The defense will attack their credibility and relevance as they try to keep them off the witness stand at the trial, scheduled for the spring.
“To come up with the required showing of a 'signature,' the commonwealth reaches for a cliché: a giant in the entertainment industry using his power to take advantage of young aspiring actresses. Even if proven ... the age-old 'casting couch' is not unique to Mr. Cosby,” defense lawyer Brian McMonagle wrote in an October defense brief opposing the testimony.
That “prior bad act” evidence could make or break the case, which began a decade ago when Temple University employee Andrea Constand filed a police complaint against her friend and mentor over a 2004 encounter at Cosby's home near Philadelphia. A prosecutor at the time declined to file charges.
But authorities reopened the case last year after scores of women raised similar accusations and after Cosby's damaging deposition testimony from Constand's lawsuit became public. The trial judge last week said the deposition was fair game at trial, arming prosecutors with Cosby's own testimony about his affairs with young women, his use of quaaludes as a seduction tool and his version of the sexual encounter with Constand.
