Bill Cosby, center, shortly after being released on Wednesday. Credit... The disgraced actor and comedian Bill Cosby walked free this week after three years in prison when the Pennsylvania Supreme Court threw out his 2018 convictions on charges of drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand in 2004, when she was a Temple University employee.
Because prosecutors violated Mr. Cosby’s rights by reneging on an apparent promise not to charge him, the court majority ruled. In 2005, Bruce L. Castor Jr., who was then the district attorney in Montgomery County, Pa., outside Philadelphia, issued a news release saying that he had declined to charge Mr. Cosby over the matter.
In 2016, when the Cosby defense team was trying to get the criminal charges thrown out, they took the unusual step of calling Mr. Castor as a witness at a pretrial hearing. He testified that he had believed Ms. Constand but did not think the evidence was enough to prove her accusations beyond a reasonable doubt.
In December, Manhattan-based lawyer Jennifer Bonjean appeared before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to argue that it should overturn Bill Cosby's sexual assault conviction. Welcome to Reuters Legal News beta. Please enjoy and provide us with your feedback as we continue to improve the Reuters Legal News experience. Skip to main content
On Wednesday, R&B singer R. Kelly cut ties with his Chicago legal team, choosing to have Bill Cosby's attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, defend him instead, according to the Chicago Tribune. She is the same lawyer who helped Bill Cosby overturn his sexual assault conviction in 2018.
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Cosby, who is serving a three-to-10 year sentence for sexual assault, has decided to use three new lawyers — Brian W. Perry, Barbara A. Zemlock and Kristen L. Weisenberger — from the same Harrisburg, Pa., firm.
Cosby's attorney Brian Perry told CNN “we believe that he will be released from prison this afternoon.” A spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections said in a statement that they are aware of the decision. “The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections is in receipt of today's court decision.
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Comedian Bill Cosby has fired all seven attorneys on his legal team just months ahead of his September sentencing, replacing them with a single Pennsylvania criminal-defense lawyer.
A source with direct knowledge of Cosby's legal strategy told ABC News the comedian and his family dismissed his trial team because they were "disappointed" in their representation.
Duke suggested that Cosby's most viable avenue of appeal would be to challenge the pre-trial decision by O'Neill to allow five additional Cosby accusers to testify in the most recent trial. That decision was a significant departure from O'Neill's pre-trial ruling in the first case, when he allowed one additional accuser to testify.
Brennan also castigated Cosby for repeatedly changing legal horses in midstream.
Cosby was represented during his first jury trial in 2016 on the same sexual assault charges by attorneys Brian McMonagle, Angela Agrusa and others . That trial ended with a hung jury and a mistrial.
Pennsylvania law restricts criminal appeals from being filed until after sentencing, so Cosby has yet to challenge his convictions in court.
Bliss did not immediately respond to a request for comment . Mesereau gave ABC News a one-sentence statement but declined further comment.
Explore the topics mentioned in this article. Bill Cosby was released from prison on Wednesday after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned a 2018 conviction because of a standing agreement with a previous prosecutor. The sudden release of the 83-year-old actor and comedian left many unanswered questions.
And that's why he made that deal. Because he knew also that a lot of money would likely be paid to this accuser, and ... she was paid a lot of money.
Raphael said a less famous defendant would "likely not be given the same circumstances or agreements because, frankly, "John Doe couldn't afford to pay something like that."
When the depositions were unsealed in 2015, the new prosecutor used them to bring criminal claims against Cosby, a move the Pennsylvania Supreme Court determined violated Cosby's agreement with Castor. Is Cosby innocent?
The district attorney, Bruce Castor, known for his defense of former President Donald Trump during his second impeachment trial, was the district attorney of Montgomery County at the time, and he argued there was not sufficient evidence to convict Cosby on a criminal charge. That's when they came to an agreement.
Yes. In the first trial in 2015, only Cosby's accuser was allowed to testify, and the jury was deadlocked. The prosecutor then decided to hold a second trial. Even though Cosby was only on trial for one accusation, five other Cosby accusers were brought in to testify against him for unrelated incidents.
In December, Manhattan-based lawyer Jennifer Bonjean appeared before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to argue that it should overturn Bill Cosby's sexual assault conviction. On Wednesday the court agreed, finding a non-prosecution deal the comedian had struck with a previous district attorney should have shielded him from charges.
Bill Cosby stands next to his spokesman Andrew Wyatt and lawyer Jennifer Bonjean outside Cosby's home after Pennsylvania's highest court overturned his sexual assault conviction and ordered him released from prison immediately, in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, U.S., June 30, 2021. REUTERS/Mark Makela.
Wrice was initially convicted and sentenced to 100 years in prison.
Raniere was sentenced to 120 years in prison in October; former "Smallville" actor Allison Mack was sentenced to three years in prison for her involvement in Raniere's cult on Wednesday.
Wrice was initially convicted and sentenced to 100 years in prison. Bonjean handled the appeal for Raniere, the founder of NXIVM where prosecutors said women were kept on starvation diets, branded with his initials, and ordered to have sex with him.
The disgraced actor and comedian Bill Cosby walked free this week after three years in prison when the Pennsylvania Supreme Court threw out his 2018 convictions on charges of drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand in 2004, when she was a Temple University employee.
Trump’s second impeachment trial before the Senate — has said that he announced in 2005 that Mr. Cosby would not be charged in an effort to prevent him from invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination so he would have to testify in Ms. Constand’s coming civil case.
Because prosecutors violated Mr. Cosby’s rights by reneging on an apparent promise not to charge him, the court majority ruled.
In 2016, when the Cosby defense team was trying to get the criminal charges thrown out, they took the unusual step of calling Mr. Castor as a witness at a pretrial hearing. He testified that he had believed Ms. Constand but did not think the evidence was enough to prove her accusations beyond a reasonable doubt. He defended his decision as a way to help her suit.
This immunity from prosecution applies only to the specific accusations that Mr. Cosby drugged and assaulted Ms. Constand. Other women across the country have also come forward to accuse the entertainer of similarly assaulting them in years past. But those accusations involved encounters that were so long ago that statutes of limitations bar charging him over them.
Against that backdrop, a legal dispute arose over whether Mr. Castor had in fact offered a binding promise that Mr. Cosby would never be charged — and, if he did, whether he had the authority to do so. Mr. Castor maintained he had made such a pledge, but the trial judge disagreed and ruled that the criminal case brought by the new district attorney could proceed. But the Supreme Court majority backed Mr. Castor’s interpretation of what he had done.
Castor said in a phone interview on Wednesday that he believed his prosecutorial decision-making in 2005 had been “exonerated” by the Supreme Court’s decision.
FILE - Bill Cosby gestures as he leaves the Montgomery County Courthouse on April 26, 2018, in Norristown, Pa., after he was convicted of drugging and molesting a woman in the first big celebrity trial of the #MeToo era. Pennsylvania’s highest court has overturned comedian Cosby’s sex assault conviction.
The split court found that Cosby was unfairly prosecuted because the previous district attorney had promised the comedian once known as “America's Dad” that he wouldn't be charged over Constand's accusations. Cosby was charged by another prosecutor who claimed he wasn't bound by that agreement.
The justices found that Cosby relied on that promise when he agreed to testify without invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in a lawsuit brought against him by Constand. The court concluded that prosecutor who later brought the charges was obligated to stick to the nonprosecution agreement, so the conviction cannot stand.
EXPLAINER: Why Bill Cosby's conviction was overturned. Bill Cosby’s sexual assault conviction has been thrown out by Pennsylvania’s highest court, which ruled that he was unfairly prosecuted because a previous district attorney had promised he wouldn't be charged. By MARYCLAIRE DALE and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER Associated Press.
Castor had said that Constand’s case would be difficult to prove in court because she waited a year to come forward and stayed in contact with Cosby.
Pennsylvania’s highest court has overturned comedian Cosby’s sex assault conviction. The court said Wednesday, June 30, 2021, that they found an agreement with a previous prosecutor prevented him from being charged in the case. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum, File)
It’s highly unlikely. The decision on Wednesday bars Cosby from being tried again over Constand’s complaint, finding it to be the “ only remedy that comports with society’s reasonable expectations of its elected prosecutors and our criminal justice system.”