Prosecutors in Pennsylvania on Tuesday crossed their final hurdle to bring Bill Cosby to trial on charges that he drugged and sexually assaulted a woman he once mentored, with a judge ruling that enough evidence existed for the case to move forward.
While Cosby is fighting numerous civil cases involving similar accusations, the ruling by Judge Elizabeth McHugh means that the once-popular entertainer must face at least one of his accusers in a criminal proceeding, likely to take place here this year.
“This case will move forward,” McHugh told the crowded courtroom in Montgomery County Courthouse.
The hearing, while routine, attracted widespread attention, with more than 100 members of the media and public packed into the courtroom and 50 others seated in an overflow room nearby.
The day came more than 11 years after Andrea Constand, a former Temple University staff member, brought her complaint to the police about what she said was a drugging and sexual assault at Cosby’s home in early 2004.
Although a former district attorney in Montgomery County chose not to pursue charges in 2005, current prosecutors reopened the investigation last year after many other women came forward with similar accusations against Cosby. The move also followed the publication last summer of parts of a deposition Cosby gave in a 2005 civil suit brought by Constand, in which he admitted obtaining Quaalude as part of his efforts to have sex with other women.
Cosby, 78, who sat flanked by his three lawyers throughout the hearing, stood at the end and said: “Thank you.”
The judge wished him luck.
The ruling, a formal requirement for criminal trials in Pennsylvania, ended a first round of legal skirmishing that began as soon as the charges were filed five months ago.
After the ruling, Cosby waived a formal arraignment, which means he automatically enters a plea of not guilty. The case now moves back up to the state’s trial court level, where another judge is to be assigned. That judge would set a trial date.
Cosby’s lawyers are then likely to battle to suppress evidence, including Cosby’s deposition from the 2005 civil case, because confidentiality was part of the settlement.
Cosby is also expected to fight any attempt to introduce evidence from other women who have come forward.
A taste of that battle came on Tuesday during the contentious three-and-a-half-hour hearing.
Brian McMonagle, Cosby’s lawyer who led the cross-
examination, attacked the prosecution for relying on a statement Constand gave to the police in 2005 rather than calling her as a witness.
McMonagle said that using the report of a 12-year-old event that Constand did not tell the police about until a year later was denying Cosby the right to confront his accuser.
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