NORRISTOWN >> A Montgomery County judge has urged a state court to quash entertainer Bill Cosby’s appeal of the judge’s refusal to dismiss the sex assault charges lodged against Cosby in connection with an alleged encounter he had with a woman at his Cheltenham home.
Judge Steven T. O’Neill, in an opinion filed with the Pennsylvania Superior Court this week, said Cosby’s appeal of the July 7 pretrial ruling is “neither appealable by right…nor based on ‘exceptional circumstances’ and therefore, this appeal should be quashed.”
The Superior Court is deciding whether to consider Cosby’s appeal. If it does, then the criminal proceedings against Cosby possibly could be delayed. While no trial date has been set for Cosby he does face a pretrial conference in September on three counts of aggravated indecent assault in connection with allegations he sexually assaulted a woman at his Cheltenham home in 2004.
Defense lawyer Brian J. McMonagle and co-defense lawyer Monique Pressley want the state court to review O’Neill’s July 7 determination that prosecutors, under current state law, were not required to present alleged victim Andrea Constand’s live testimony during Cosby’s May preliminary hearing before a district court judge.
“These issues must be resolved now, because lack of immediate appellate review will cause Mr. Cosby’s interests to be irreparably lost, since he will forever be prevented from confronting his accuser before a trial,” McMonagle wrote in court documents filed last month.
O’Neill ruled prosecutors’ reliance on so-called “hearsay evidence” at that preliminary hearing was “perfectly proper,” under current law, to show sufficient evidence to move Cosby’s case to trial.
During Cosby’s May 24 preliminary hearing, District Attorney Kevin R. Steele and co-prosecutors M. Stewart Ryan and Kristen Feden presented county and Cheltenham detectives as witnesses who testified and read into the record statements that Constand allegedly gave to detectives on Jan. 22, 2005, claiming Cosby had sexual contact with her at his Cheltenham mansion.
McMonagle has argued that Steele relied on “hearsay” and detectives’ recollections about Constand’s statements and that Cosby should have had the right to confront his accuser.
William Henry Cosby Jr., 79, as his name appears on charging documents, faces charges in connection with the alleged sexual assault of Constand, a former Temple University athletic department employee, at his home in the 8200 block of New Second Street in Cheltenham between mid-January and mid-February 2004. The charges were lodged against Cosby on Dec. 30, before the 12-year statute of limitations to file charges expired.
The newspaper does not normally identify victims of sex crimes without their consent but is using Constand’s name because she has identified herself publicly.
If convicted of the charges at trial, Cosby, an entertainment icon who remains free on 10 percent of $1 million bail, faces a possible maximum sentence of 15 to 30 years in prison.
