The Latest: Cosby hearing adjourned with no rulings

The 79-year-old Cosby is fighting felony charges over a 2004 sexual encounter with a Temple University employee.

His lawyers are trying to keep out testimony he gave in the woman’s sexual battery and defamation lawsuit.

Prosecutors want 13 other accusers to testify to bolster the woman’s account that Cosby drugged and molested her.

Cosby and his lawyers gave an impromptu press conference afterward. Cosby clutched a cane and smiled when an onlooker asked how he was feeling and thanked a woman who said he looked well.

The next hearing dates are Dec. 13 and 14.

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4:10 p.m.

The prosecutor in Bill Cosby’s sexual assault case says the entertainer’s lawyers are putting the names of some of his other accusers in public documents in an attempt to intimidate them.

District Attorney Kevin Steele told a judge Wednesday that some of the 13 women hadn’t been publicly identified before and that his office had taken great pains to keep their names under wraps.

Steele wants the women to testify at Cosby’s trial for an alleged 2004 sexual assault. He says they’ll show Cosby has had a habit of drugging and molesting women over a five-decade span.

Cosby’s lawyers oppose that strategy and deny the intimidation allegations.

Cosby lawyer Brian McMonagle says the women have no connection to the 2004 case. He says many of them were already publicly identified and some even held press conferences.

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3:05 p.m.

Prosecutors in Bill Cosby’s Pennsylvania sexual-assault case say they learned only last year that he had once testified about using powerful drugs to facilitate sex with women.

They say Cosby’s newly unsealed testimony from an accuser’s 2006 lawsuit prompted them to reopen the case and arrest Cosby in December.

Cosby also said in the deposition he penetrated his accuser with his finger. That made the case a potential felony and gave prosecutors time to charge him under the 12-year statute of limitations.

Cosby’s lawyers argue the long delay in bringing charges makes it impossible for him to defend the case. They say he’s legally blind and can’t recognize his accusers or otherwise help the defence.

The defence wants the case thrown out over the trial delay. The trial is scheduled for June.

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1:30 p.m.

Lawyers in Bill Cosby’s sexual assault case say his eyesight has deteriorated to the point he can no longer identify his accusers in photographs or otherwise help the defence.

The 79-year-old Cosby leaned back in his chair Wednesday as his lawyers tried to get a felony charge dismissed before his June trial in Pennsylvania.

Prosecutors want 13 other accusers to testify to bolster a woman’s account that Cosby drugged and molested her in 2004.

Defence lawyer Angela Agrusa says prosecutors unfairly prejudiced Cosby by waiting a decade to pursue Andrea Constand’s complaint. She says his vision and memory problems leave him unable to defend himself.

Prosecutors say they reopened the case last year amid new evidence and they’re not sure of the extent of Cosby’s vision problems.

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11:50 a.m.

Bill Cosby’s lawyers say he’s a political pawn who’s being unfairly prosecuted because a suburban Philadelphia district attorney made his 2004 sexual assault case a focal point of his recent election campaign.

Cosby’s lawyers are arguing Wednesday that the entertainer’s case should be thrown out because the long delay in charging him amounted to a violation of his due process rights.

They say he was arrested last year only because incoming Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele had to deliver on campaign ads that suggested he’d charge the 79-year-old Cosby.

Prosecutors reopened Cosby’s case after a judge unsealed portions of his lurid, decade-old deposition from a related civil case.

Cosby’s lawyers say he only testified at the 2005 deposition because the former DA promised he’d never face arrest.

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9:45 a.m.

Bill Cosby is back in a Pennsylvania courtroom to learn if a judge will allow his damaging decade-old testimony from an accuser’s lawsuit to be used at his June sexual assault trial.

It’s the second day of the pretrial hearing outside Philadelphia.

The 79-year-old Cosby is fighting felony charges over a 2004 sexual encounter with a Temple University employee.

His lawyers are trying to keep out the testimony he gave in the woman’s sexual battery and defamation lawsuit.

Cosby says he was told the deposition wouldn’t be used against him in any criminal proceeding. But the judge questions why he would testify without having a written immunity agreement.

The long-married comedian had testified about a series of affairs and said he sometimes gave women pills or alcohol before sex.

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12:15 a.m.

Bill Cosby is returning to court Wednesday to hear if a judge will allow his damaging decade-old testimony from an accuser’s lawsuit to be used at his June criminal trial.

The 79-year-old Cosby is fighting felony charges over the 2004 sexual encounter with a Temple University employee.

His lawyers are trying to keep out the testimony he gave in the woman’s sexual battery and defamation lawsuit.

Prosecutors reopened the criminal case last year after the deposition was unsealed and more women came forward accusing Cosby of molesting them.

Cosby says he was told the deposition would never be used against him in any criminal proceeding. But a suburban Philadelphia judge questions why he would testify without having an immunity agreement in writing.

The entertainer remains free on $1 million bail.

The Associated Press

by Canadian Press

The Latest: Cosby hearing adjourned with no rulings

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