Bill Cosby heads back to court for 2-day pre-trial hearing

Experts say it will be hard for the 80-year old comedian to get off this time around.

Bill Cosby will be expected back in Montgomery County Court in Pennsylvania this Monday. He’s been called in for two days of pre-trial hearing, which are expected to play a vital part in further proceedings.

Jazzi Johnson

Mar 5, 2018

Bill Cosby will be expected back in Montgomery County Court in Pennsylvania this Monday. He’s been called in for two days of pre-trial hearing, which are expected to play a vital part in further proceedings.

The hearings will allow Cosby’s defense team to ask and argue for the case to be dismissed. The prosecution, however, will present a case for the approval of 19 accusers to take the stand against the 80-year-old entertainment mogul.

Ready to be heard

The hearing will be a critical disruption of the defense’s case, should the accusers be allowed to take the stand. Defense lawyer Chuck Peruto, who is not involved in the case, spoke with BizJournals and said that if the women are allowed to testify, the jury is likely to convict the Philadelphia-born comedian.

“I think that if the judge reversed himself on that, Cosby has no chance of acquittal,” said Peruto.

Previously, prosecutors had a list of 13 accusers who were ready and willing to testify, but the judge only allowed Kelley Johnson to be heard.

The April 2 case will include the same judge, all of the same criminal charges, and the same lead prosecutor. However, the most striking difference is Cosby’s new legal representation. Michael Jackson’s former lawyer, Tom Mesereau, will attempt to vindicate Cosby with a new jury comprised of residents from Montgomery County.

Cosby’s daughter’s recent passing

In addition to the stress of the case, Cosby is dealing with the recent death of his daughter Ensa Cosby, 44, on March 2 as she awaited a kidney transplant.

Her husband Martin McLean said in an interview with the DailyMail.com, that a kidney donor had been identified and the transplant would have taken place in a few weeks but Ensa passed away at Massachusetts General Hospital.

“We didn’t have a date [for the surgery], we had a time-frame,” McLean added. “It was going to be pretty close, sometime in the future.”

Bill Cosby’s 44-year-old daughter Ensa had been living with kidney issues for some time, McLean said. She is also survived by one daughter from a previous relationship.

“She had been battling kidney issues for the past couple of years, she had been on dialysis and she was very brave,” McLean told the DailyMail.com while leaving Wednesday’s funeral at Cosby’s family compound.

New trial date

After a mistrial in June 2017 where a jury failed to come to a unanimous decision on whether or not to convict Cosby on sexual assault charges in the case of Andrea Constand, a retrial was rescheduled for April 2. Constand claimed that he drugged and assaulted her in 2004 at his mansion in Philadelphia. Cosby’s defense argued that their sexual relationship was consensual.

If found guilty this time around, Cosby faces up to 30 years in prison for aggravated indecent assault.

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