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“This evidence was used to strip Cosby of his presumption of innocence and to try to establish that Cosby had the propensity to sexually assault women,” his lawyers wrote in the appeal filed in Pennsylvania Superior Court. “This evidence never should have been admitted at trial.”
The lengthy appeal included several other complaints about the actions of the judge, Steven O’Neill, that the defense team had already indicated would be grounds for a challenge. Cosby, 81, was found guilty in 2018 in Montgomery County Court of drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand at his home outside Philadelphia in 2004. He is serving a three- to 10-year sentence in a Pennsylvania prison.
In the filing, Cosby’s lawyers, Kristen Weisenberger, Brian Perry and Sarah Kelly-Kilgore said the judge had wrongly ignored the testimony of a former district attorney who said he had promised never to prosecute Cosby. The team also questioned the judge’s decision to allow into evidence a deposition Cosby made in a lawsuit brought by Constand acknowledging he had obtained quaaludes to be used to incapacitate women so he could have sex with them, a statement that prosecutors portrayed as evidence of his willingness to do the same to Constand.
Legal experts have said that the strongest argument in Cosby’s defense is his challenge to O’Neill’s decision to allow the five additional accusers to testify.
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In the appeal, his lawyers said he was denied a fair trial because the allegations made by the five other women were remote in time and did not share close similarities to the Constand case.
In an opinion published in May, O’Neill asserted that the testimony of those women was particularly relevant because of the “chilling similarities” in their accounts, which he said depicted a “signature” method of assaulting women.
Now that the full appeals brief has been filed, prosecutors have 30 days to respond to the Superior Court. Kate Delano, a spokeswoman for the Montgomery County district attorney’s office, declined to comment beyond confirming that prosecutors would file their response.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.