Former DA Explains Why He Declined To Bring Charges Against Cosby In The Past
By Alexandria Hoff
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- In February of 2005, then-Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce Castor, released that he would not bring charges against Bill Cosby for the alleged assault of a former Temple University employee.
At the time, Castor said he found that,"Insufficient, credible, and admissible evidence exists upon which any charge against Mr. Cosby could be sustained beyond a reasonable doubt."
Now, with the recent release of Cosby's testimony Castor says he is now able to reveal more about his decision not to prosecute a man he believed to be guilty.
"I thought the record would be sealed and I would go to my grave the only one who knew, aside from the people who worked on the case, how it is we set up the scenario to get him," said Castor, a current Montgomery County Commissioner from his office on Tuesday.
He explained that by announcing that he would not be prosecuting a weak criminal case, his team stripped Cosby of his 5th protection during the civil case that followed. Castor says this strengthened the victim's ability to be awarded damages.
"Did he know that the judge was going to unseal those documents? I guarantee you he didn't know that," said Castor, who added that typically, a legal team will have to reapply for cases to remain sealed and that in this case they may have "dropped the ball."
Now that the documents are unsealed, there may be reason to take a closer look according to Castor who is also re-running for District Attorney.
"If in fact, I am the District Attorney in January and the deposition was taken in Montgomery County, what I would do is get those depositions and have them tear them apart, word-for-word and try to disprove all the face in there that were material."
If a legal team were able to find inconsistencies in Cosby's testimony, he could be eligible to be charged with perjury.
Since the documents were only made public as of this week, the five-year statute of limitation on them will now expire in 2020.