Bill Cosby files motion over drug testimony

Comedian Bill Cosby has filed a motion to have his drugging admission in a decade-old civil deposition barred as evidence in his sexual assault trial.
The Cosby Show veteran is facing trial on three charges of felony indecent assault amid allegations he drugged and sexually assaulted former Temple University employee Andrea Constand at his Pennsylvania home in 2004. He was not charged at the time of the incident, but faced questioning in 2005 and 2006 as part of Constand’s civil suit, which was subsequently settled out of court.
The criminal case was reopened in 2015 after the star’s sealed deposition was made public, revealing Cosby had enjoyed a number of extramarital affairs and confessed to buying sedatives to give to women he wanted to sleep with.
The actor’s attorneys have repeatedly argued against allowing the deposition to be used against him in a criminal court, but in December (16) a judge allowed prosecutors to enter it into evidence.
Cosby’s team is still fighting the decision and on Tuesday (28Mar17), the 79-year-old’s lawyers filed a petition to prevent jurors from hearing the decade-old testimony, according to Billboard.com, insisting it is “quintessentially the kind of evidence that causes unfair prejudice”.
A motion on the hearing is scheduled for Monday (03Apr17).
Cosby’s trial is scheduled to begin on 5 June (17).
More than 50 women have come forward in recent years with historical sex assault allegations against the veteran funnyman. His representatives have repeatedly denied the accusations.