Judge Refuses To Dismiss Sexual Assault Charge Against Bill Cosby

Source: David A. Smith / Getty

The sordid Bill Cosby saga continues. Pennsylvania Judge Steven T. O’Neill ruled that he will not dismiss the sexual assault charge against the comedian.

Cosby’s lawyer’s were fighting to get the charge thrown out because in 2005, former prosecutor Bruce Castor made a verbal agreement to provide the comedian with a no-prosecution deal. The charge stems from allegations by Andrea Constand that Cosby drugged and molested her at his home in the Philadelphia suburbs in 2004.

In a deposition he gave in a lawsuit filed by Constand, Cosby admitted he gave her Benadryl and wine and said the encounter was consensual.

Castor, testified during the hearing that while he believed Constand’s story that Cosby had “inappropriately touched” her, she had “credibility issues” that would have made it impossible to get a conviction.

One of the lawyers on Cosby’s team, Jack Schmitt said he would have never let Cosby sit for the deposition in 2005 had he known a criminal case could be reopened in the future.

“We will appeal,” said Cosby’s lawyer, Monique Pressley.

Linda Dale Hoffa, a former state and federal prosecutor who is now a defense lawyer, provided this insight on the case. “The judge today made a ruling that makes sense and is not surprising. Defense lawyers know that a District Attorney’s promise to never prosecute has to be in writing to be enforceable,’ she said.

A preliminary hearing in the criminal case was set for March 8.

SOURCES: NBC/ABC

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BREAKING: Judge Refuses To Dismiss Sexual Assault Charge Against Bill Cosby Despite Claims Of Immunity  was originally published on ionehellobeautiful.staging.go.ione.nyc