Bill Cosby's latest attempt to appeal his prison sentence has failed, as the Pennsylvania Superior Court affirmed the judgment against him Tuesday morning.

A three-judge panel of the court said in a 94-page opinion that Cosby's sentence of three to 10 years' incarceration should stay in place. Cosby's case raised unusual questions given the large number of additional accusers, and a purported nonprosecution agreement from when the allegations against him first surfaced. But the appellate court stood by the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas' decisions on those issues.

A main focus of Cosby's appeal, among other arguments, was that the court erred in allowing five women who have accused him of sexual assault to testify at trial, in addition to Andrea Constand, whose allegations against him formed the basis of the criminal case. Cosby was found guilty of drugging Constand and sexually assaulting her at his home in 2004.

The appellate court said Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas Judge Steven T. O'Neill did not abuse his discretion by allowing prosecutors to use this testimony, which was presented as evidence of "prior bad acts." The Montgomery County District Attorney's Office had sought to include testimony from 19 accusers, and the judge allowed five.

"The commonwealth sought to demonstrate that appellant engaged in a pattern of non-consensual sex acts with his victims that were 'quite distinct from a typical sexual abuse pattern; so distinct, in fact, that they are all recognizable as the handiwork of the same perpetrator,'" Judge John Bender wrote for the court.

Cosby had argued that the accusations brought by the five women were too dissimilar and too distant in time to be permitted.

"We disagree that these differences render the PBA evidence inadmissible under the common plan/scheme/design or absence of mistake exceptions. It is impossible for two incidents of sexual assault involving different victims to be identical in all respects," Bender wrote.

In a statement Tuesday morning, Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele said he is very pleased with the decision.

"First and foremost, it is my hope that with this last guaranteed step in the criminal justice process now complete, the victim in this case, Andrea Constand, can finally put this assault behind her and move on with her life as the strong survivor she is," Steele said.

He added: "The world is forever changed because of Andrea's bravery. With this decision, it has been affirmed that no one is above the law."

Harrisburg attorney Brian Perry of Perry Shore Weisenberger & Zemlock, who represented Cosby in the appeal, was not immediately available for comment Tuesday morning.

Also in his appeal, Cosby argued that O'Neill should have disclosed a "biased relationship with Bruce Castor," the former Montgomery County district attorney. Cosby also said the court erred by refusing to dismiss charges in 2016 under Cosby's petition for writ of habeas corpus, which argued that he had been party to a nonprosecution agreement.

"We cannot deem reasonable appellant's reliance on such a promise when he was represented by counsel, especially when immunity can only be granted by a court order, and where no court order granting him immunity existed," Bender wrote.

The appeal also challenged the court's decision to admit evidence from Cosby's 2005-2006 civil deposition and his prior testimony about using and distributing Quaaludes. Finally, Cosby disagreed with the court's decision not to provide certain jury instructions his lawyers had requested, and the court's decisions with regard to his sexually violent predator assessment.

Cosby was sentenced in September 2018, after he was found guilty of three counts of aggravated indecent assault at a retrial in April 2018. His first trial, in June 2017, ended in a mistrial when the jury was unable to reach a verdict.

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