Disgraced actor Bill Cosby attempts to overturn sexual assault conviction
- The 82-year-old is in prison for drugging and molesting a woman at his home in what became the first celebrity trial of the #MeToo era
- His lawyers argue that incriminating testimony in 2005 he gave was subject to an immunity agreement, but can offer no written evidence
Lawyers for former actor and convicted sex offender Bill Cosby asked a Pennsylvania appeal court to overturn the 82-year-old’s sexual assault conviction on Monday.
Cosby is serving a three- to 10-year prison term for drugging and molesting a woman at his home in what became the first celebrity trial of the #MeToo era.
His lawyers have long argued that he relied on a supposed non-prosecution agreement when he gave testimony in a lawsuit brought by Andrea Constand in 2005 – testimony that would subsequently prove incriminating when it was unsealed a decade later.
On Monday, the three-judge appeal panel questioned why Cosby’s top-shelf lawyers did not get the immunity agreement in writing and approved by a judge, as is the norm.
“This is not a low-budget operation. … They had an unlimited budget,” said Superior Court Judge John T. Bender. “Could it be they knew this was something the trial court would never have allowed?”
Judge Carolyn Nichols echoed Bender’s point, asking, “how can the elected district attorney bind that office in perpetuity?”