Bill Cosby Is All Smiles As He Arrives Back In Court

Forum 7 years ago

Bill Cosby Is All Smiles As He Arrives Back In Court

A judge has ruled that comedian Bill Cosby must stand trial on s3x assault charges despite his lawyers making another attempt to have the charges against him thrown out. Cosby, 78, was all smiles as he walked into court in Pennsylvania today, but looked crestfallen when he emerged following the verdict, which his lawyers say they will appeal.

His defense team had asked Judge Steven T. O'Neill to dismiss the case brought by Andrea Constand, saying they were denied the opportunity to cross-examine her at a pretrial hearing.

But O'Neill rejected their appeal after hearing from district attorney Kevin Steele that a 2013 rule change means defendants like Cosby have no right to face their accuser at pretrial hearings.


Steele told the court that there was no need 'to re-traumatize victims at preliminary hearings'.

He added: 'They're saying they want to confront the witness? Let's go to trial and confront the witness.

'We want to get this case in front of a jury, and he can have a jury of his peers decide if he's guilty.'

The hearing being disputed took place in May this year to establish whether statements that Constand and Cosby gave to police back in 2005 constituted probable cause.

During that hearing, Constand was not called and the prosecution instead relied on the detectives who had taken her statement to testify about what she said.