Cosby Local Counsel Seeks Exit Amid New Bid to Discredit Charges
Cosby's lawyers allege that prosecutors failed to disclose an interview with a co-worker of Andrea Constand.
January 26, 2018 at 01:20 PM
3 minute read
Bill Cosby, accompanied by Andrew Wyatt, departs after a pretrial hearing in Cosby's sexual assault case at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown on Aug. 22, 2017. Photo: Matt Rourke/AP
Bill Cosby is taking another shot at getting the criminal charges against him dismissed, as the date of his retrial grows closer and his legal team shuffles yet again.
Lawyers for Cosby filed several pretrial motions late Thursday and early Friday, including two motions to dismiss the charges. In one of the motions, Cosby alleged that prosecutors at the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office “not only failed to disclose, but have destroyed, exculpatory evidence.”
In another, Cosby argued that there is not sufficient evidence to prove that the alleged sexual assault took place within the statute of limitations period.
Meanwhile, local counsel Samuel Silver of Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis has filed a motion for leave to withdraw from the case. In the motion, which doesn't state a reason for the withdrawal bid, he noted that Cosby's remaining lawyers, Tom Mesereau, Kathleen Bliss, Jason Hicks and Becky James, will need to find a new Pennsylvania lawyer to sponsor their pro hac vice admission. Silver and James did not immediately respond to calls seeking comment Friday.
Cosby's trial is scheduled to begin April 2. He is charged with aggravated indecent assault for allegedly drugging, then sexually assaulting Andrea Constand in 2004.
According to Cosby's motion, prosecutors have admitted that they interviewed a former co-worker of Constand's, Marguerite Jackson, in 2003 or 2004. Jackson allegedly told prosecutors that Constand told her she was not sexually assaulted, but that she could make the accusation, file charges and get money.
“This evidence is obviously devastating to the credibility of the one and only witness who testified that Mr. Cosby had committed the sexual assault,” the defense motion said.
Cosby's motion also alleged that prosecutors allowed Constand to testify falsely that she did not know Jackson.
Lawyers for Cosby filed a motion to admit testimony from Jackson that included an affidavit from Jackson saying she and Constand were on a work trip when they discussed another prominent person facing sexual assault allegations. Constand first said she had also been assaulted before changing her story, the affidavit said, but when Jackson pressed her as to whether the assault really happened, Constand allegedly responded. “No, it didn't but I could say it did.”
The defense also filed a motion to exclude testimony from Patrice Sewell, the mother of another woman who has accused Cosby of sexually assaulting her. Sewell testified at the first trial along with her daughter, Kelley Johnson, who was the only woman permitted to testify as a prior bad acts witness.
Cosby's lawyers have moved to incorporate pretrial motions from the first trial as well, and oppositions to prosecutors' motions. Those include a motion to suppress contents of Cosby's deposition testimony from the civil litigation between him and Constand. But they have not asked for a change of venire, which was granted in the first trial.
A spokeswoman for the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office said prosecutors “will be filing a response within 10 days and we will address the inaccuracies in their filings.”
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
You Might Like
View AllPhila. Med Mal Lawyers In for Busy Year as Court Adjusts for Filing Boom
3 minute read'Recover, Reflect, Retool and Retry': Lessons From Women Atop Pa. Legal Community
3 minute readEDPA's New Chief Judge Plans to Advance Efforts to Combat Threats to Judiciary
3 minute readTrending Stories
Who Got The Work
Michael G. Bongiorno, Andrew Scott Dulberg and Elizabeth E. Driscoll from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr have stepped in to represent Symbotic Inc., an A.I.-enabled technology platform that focuses on increasing supply chain efficiency, and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The case, filed Oct. 2 in Massachusetts District Court by the Brown Law Firm on behalf of Stephen Austen, accuses certain officers and directors of misleading investors in regard to Symbotic's potential for margin growth by failing to disclose that the company was not equipped to timely deploy its systems or manage expenses through project delays. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, is 1:24-cv-12522, Austen v. Cohen et al.
Who Got The Work
Edmund Polubinski and Marie Killmond of Davis Polk & Wardwell have entered appearances for data platform software development company MongoDB and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The action, filed Oct. 7 in New York Southern District Court by the Brown Law Firm, accuses the company's directors and/or officers of falsely expressing confidence in the company’s restructuring of its sales incentive plan and downplaying the severity of decreases in its upfront commitments. The case is 1:24-cv-07594, Roy v. Ittycheria et al.
Who Got The Work
Amy O. Bruchs and Kurt F. Ellison of Michael Best & Friedrich have entered appearances for Epic Systems Corp. in a pending employment discrimination lawsuit. The suit was filed Sept. 7 in Wisconsin Western District Court by Levine Eisberner LLC and Siri & Glimstad on behalf of a project manager who claims that he was wrongfully terminated after applying for a religious exemption to the defendant's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The case, assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Anita Marie Boor, is 3:24-cv-00630, Secker, Nathan v. Epic Systems Corporation.
Who Got The Work
David X. Sullivan, Thomas J. Finn and Gregory A. Hall from McCarter & English have entered appearances for Sunrun Installation Services in a pending civil rights lawsuit. The complaint was filed Sept. 4 in Connecticut District Court by attorney Robert M. Berke on behalf of former employee George Edward Steins, who was arrested and charged with employing an unregistered home improvement salesperson. The complaint alleges that had Sunrun informed the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection that the plaintiff's employment had ended in 2017 and that he no longer held Sunrun's home improvement contractor license, he would not have been hit with charges, which were dismissed in May 2024. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer, is 3:24-cv-01423, Steins v. Sunrun, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Greenberg Traurig shareholder Joshua L. Raskin has entered an appearance for boohoo.com UK Ltd. in a pending patent infringement lawsuit. The suit, filed Sept. 3 in Texas Eastern District Court by Rozier Hardt McDonough on behalf of Alto Dynamics, asserts five patents related to an online shopping platform. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, is 2:24-cv-00719, Alto Dynamics, LLC v. boohoo.com UK Limited.
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250