In his 2005 civil deposition, Bill Cosby admitted to buying Quaaludes, “with the intent of giving them to young women he wanted to have sex with.” That admission came during a lawsuit filed by Andrea Constand who claims that Cosby raped her in 2004. Constand sued Cosby for battery, assault, and defamation.
The case was settled out of court in 2006, but Cosby’s admission revealed a pattern among his attacks. Many of the over fifty women who have accused Cosby said that the comedian drugged them. Now it looks like former Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce Castor made an agreement with Cosby to keep his 2005 admission out of any potential criminal trial.
The New York Daily News reports that the agreement says “if Cosby testified in a civil case brought against him by accuser Andrea Constand then that testimony would never be used against Cosby in a criminal case.” In an email to his successor, Castor wrote:
“I can see no possibility that Cosby’s deposition could be used in a state criminal case, because I would have to testify as to what happened, and the deposition would be subject to suppression. I cannot believe any state court judge would allow that deposition into evidence.”
Kevin Steele, the current district attorney who is prosecuting Cosby, said that Castor’s claim is without merit. “There is a specific legal method to grant immunity,” Steele said. “That was not done in 2005.”
The deposition, in which Cosby said that he gave Constand, “three friends to make (her) relax,” was cited as a key piece of evidence prior to Cosby’s arrest. In a statement, Cosby’s attorneys claimed that the charges brought by Steele were illegal and unethical.
The criminal charges brought against Cosby, the statement says, “violate an express agreement made by the Montgomery County District Attorney in 2005, in which the Commonwealth agreed that Mr. Cosby would never be prosecuted with respect to the allegations of sexual assault made by complainant Andrea Constand.”
Cosby was arraigned on charges of aggravated assault in December 2015. He is currently awaiting a trial date.
Image via AP.