A suburban Philadelphia judge who refused to throw out Bill Cosby’s criminal case after his arrest will keep the case through trial.
Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge Steven T. O’Neill this year rejected defense efforts to toss the case over a supposed 2005 non-prosecution agreement between Cosby and a former prosecutor.
Cosby, 78, was charged in December with sexually assaulting a female friend in 2004. District Attorney Kevin Steele brought the charges after the case was reopened last year and the 12-year statute of limitations loomed.
Lawyers who know O’Neill say his early decisions don’t necessarily point to how he might rule on the evidence at trial. The defense hopes to limit testimony from other women accusers who have come forward and keep out Cosby’s deposition from a related lawsuit.
“If anybody thinks that because of his prior rulings in this case, and because of his prior background as a prosecutor, he is going to automatically admit all the prior bad acts (allegations), they’re mistaken,” said lawyer Jeffrey M. Lindy, who has appeared before O’Neill. “I think he’s going to split the baby, so to speak: exclude some (accusers) and let others in.”