*A former District Attorney called to testify for Bill Cosby at the first hearing in his criminal sexual assault case is apparently more of a double-edged sword for the embattled comedian’s lawyers.
USA Today reports that while Bruce Castor took the stand and stated that he didn’t pursue criminal charges against Cosby because of “credibility” issues with Cosby’s accuser, former Temple University employee Andrea Constand, the ex DA made it known in his testimony that he hopes Cosby’s efforts to get the case thrown out prove unsuccessful.
In the eyes of Cosby’s legal team, Castor is a key witness in the case.
Recalling his reasons for not going after Cosby back in the day, Castor maintained that there was “insufficient, credible and admissible evidence” in 2005 to show the TV icon had committed a crime without a reasonable doubt. Adding to this, Castor told the court that Constand did not behave like a victim of sexual assault.
“The behavior detailed within (police interviews) was inconsistent with a person who had been sexually assaulted,” Castor testified. “Her actions, on her own, including going to a lawyer before going to police, had created a credibility issue for her that could never be improved upon.”
Nevertheless, the Castor’ stood firm in his support of prosecutors against Cosby.
“Let’s be clear,” Castor told Cosby’s attorney. “I’m not on your team here. I want (prosecutors) to win” at the hearing.
Castor’s testimony is the latest development in Constand’s case against Cosby, which goes back to 2004 and stems from an encounter at Cosby’s home with Constand, who accused him a year later of drugging and raping her.
At the time, Castor was the Montgomery County district attorney. He is noted – as he said above – for not prosecuting Cosby in 2005 for lack of evidence. Constant later sued the entertainer in civil court, thereby causing Cosby to testify for thee days about the case in a deposition. Constand’s lawsuit was ultimately settled on undisclosed terms and sealed in 2006.
Excerpts from the deposition were released last year as the new DA Kevin Steele, decided to file charges just weeks before the state statute of limitations in the case was set to expire. Constand is among the dozens of women who have accused Cosby of drugging and/or sexually assaulting them in a series of incidents that go all the way back to the 1960s.
In the hearing, Cosby’s legal team is out to argue that the felony indecent sexual assault charges against their client should be dismissed in light of a “no-prosecution” deal in 2005. Under that deal, Castor stated he told Cosby’s lawyer that if the funnyman answered questions in the Constand deposition, Castor would agree not to prosecute Cosby based on the deposition.
When asked whether he believed Constand’s account of what happened to her more than a decade ago, Castor answered saying that what he believes and what he can prove are two different things.
“What I think is that Andrea Constand was inappropriately touched by Mr. Cosby,” Castor said during cross-examination. “I am not analyzing back in 2005 as to what I think. I am analyzing it back in 2005 as to what I can prove.”
As a result, Castor said he opted to not prosecute Cosby in 2005. Castor went on to admit that his decision made it impossible for Cosby to claim his Fifth Amendment right not to testify in Constand’s civil case. According to Castor, he believed that getting Constand money from Cosby via a civil suit would be “the best he could do.”
For more on Castor and his testimony in the Cosby case, click here.
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