14 December,2016 08:07 AM IST | | Agencies
Bill Cosby was set to return to a Pennsylvania courtroom yesterday, where his lawyers were expected to renew their battle with prosecutors over whether more than a dozen female accusers can testify at his criminal sexual trial next year
Bill Cosby
Norristown (Pennsylvania): Bill Cosby was set to return to a Pennsylvania courtroom yesterday, where his lawyers were expected to renew their battle with prosecutors over whether more than a dozen female accusers can testify at his criminal sexual trial next year.
The outcome of the argument is crucial for Cosby (79). If prosecutors are successful, the entertainer would face a parade of witnesses portraying him as a serial predator, rather than a single woman testifying about a decade-old encounter fueled by drugs and alcohol.
Cosby's reputation as a family-friendly comedian has been shredded by sexual assault accusations from around 50 women going back decades. Thus far, the Pennsylvania case is the only criminal prosecution he faces, though he is fighting multiple civil lawsuits.
Judge Steven O'Neill of the Court of Common Pleas in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, has scheduled two full days to hear arguments on various pretrial matters.
Andrea Constand, a former basketball coach at Cosby's alma mater Temple University, has accused him of drugging her with pills and wine in 2004 at his home before sexually assaulting her.
