Prosecutors Urge U.S. Supreme Court to Restore Bill Cosby's Conviction
Prosecutors are calling the U.S. Supreme Court to reinstate Bill Cosby's sexual assault conviction, arguing that the verdict was thrown out over a questionable agreement that the comedian claimed gave him lifetime immunity.
The prosecutors said that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court had created a "dangerous precedent," according to an ABC News Go report.
Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele described the court's decision as "an indefensible rule." He added that it might create a series of criminal appeals if it remains the law.
Steele wrote in the filing that the decision will have negative consequences beyond Montgomery County and Pennsylvania, adding that that the Supreme Court can right what the prosecutors believe is a "grievous wrong."
Cosby's lawyers argued that they relied on a promise that he would never be charged when he gave damaging testimony in an accuser's civil lawsuit in 2006.
The admissions were presented against him in two criminal trials.
The said promise is a 2005 press release from the former prosecutor, Bruce Castor. Castor said that he did not have enough evidence to arrest Cosby at the time.
The press release had an ambiguous "caution" that Castor will review the decision if need be, according to The Guardian report.
Prosecutors that followed Castor had collected the evidence and arrested the comedian in 2015.
They also noted that it falls far short of a lifetime immunity agreement.
The new prosecutors also said that they doubt that Castor ever made such a deal. They argued that Cosby had strategic reasons to give the deposition rather than invoke his fifth amendment, even if it backfired when Cosby "slipped up" in his testimony.
However, the comedian's defense lawyers claimed that the case should never have gone to trial with what they call a "non-prosecution agreement."
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Bill Cosby's Sexual Assault Case
Cosby had been sentenced three to 10 years in state prison over allegations of drugging and sexually assaulting former Temple University employee Andrea Constand in 2004. However, Cosby has always maintained that he never engaged in non-consensual sex.
Constand first told her mother that Cosby assaulted her, according to court documents. She then filed a police report with the Durham Regional Police outside Toronto, which sparked a criminal investigation by Montgomery County detectives in Cheltenham, according to an ABC News Go report.
In February 2005, California lawyer Tamara Green noted in a television interview that Constand's case prompted her to come forward with a similar allegation from the 1970s.
Green alleged Cosby took her to her apartment, where the comedian took off her clothes and molested her.
Constand filed a civil case and settled her for around $3.4 million in 2006.
Meanwhile, thirteen women agreed to testify anonymously to the court in Constand's case but were told they were no longer needed once the pair settled, according to an NBC News report.
In 2014, supermodel Beverly Johnson claimed that Cosby lured her to his home in the mid-1980s and drugged her.
In 2014 and 2015, dozens of women came forward accusing Cosby of sexual misconduct, which was before the #MeToo movement had spread.
This article is owned by Latin Post.
Written by: Mary Webber
WATCH: Bill Cosby prosecutors take case to US Supreme Court - from FOX 29 Philadelphia