Judge: Only One Other Accuser Can Testify At Cosby's Sex Assault Trial
PHILADELPHIA (CBS)--A major ruling from a judge in Montgomery County regarding Bill Cosby's upcoming criminal trial on sex assault charges.
Prosecutors had asked to present 13 women with similar allegations of sexual assault at the hands of Bill Cosby, at his criminal trial, as what's called "prior bad acts."
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In a hearing in December, Montgomery county DA Kevin Steele argued the women would show a pattern of abuse by Cosby, and also that Cosby knew what he was doing when he allegedly molested Andrea Constand after giving her pills at his Cheltenham mansion in 2004.
Defense attorney Brian McMonigle argued it would be an end run around long-since expired stautes of limitations pointing out some of these women didn't come forward for decades, and only did so after the allegations became front-page news.
Today a decision from Montgomery County judge Steven O'Neill, he is not allowing 13, instead just one.
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That woman is now in her mid-50s. She was 29 when she met Cosby in 1990. She says he befriended her and offered her acting lessons. But when she accepted an invitation to lunch at his bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel, he answered the door in his slippers and bathrobe. She says he convinced her to take a pill to relax and then molested her while she was incapacitated.
In his decision Judge O'Neill says it was a careful balancing of probative value of evidence and prejudice to the defendant.
Cosby is due in court in Montgomery County on Monday for a pretrial hearing where his lawyers will argue for an out-of-town jury or even to move the trial out of Montgomery County.
The trial is currently schedueld to start in Norristown on June 5th.