NORRISTOWN, Pa. — Prosecutors on Friday tried to block Bill Cosby‘s defense attorneys from bringing in sworn testimony given over 10 years ago by a close friend of the woman at the center of the disgraced funnyman’s sex assault retrial.
The 80-year-old’s lawyers filed a motion Thursday saying they were unable to locate Andrea Constand pal Sheri Williams, and therefore wanted jurors to hear testimony she gave in 2004 on behalf of Constand’s civil suit against Cosby.
Williams’ testimony in the civil deposition has never been unsealed. Court papers say the defense attempted to serve her with a subpoena at her Charlotte, North Carolina, home some 10 times before his retrial began.
“There are aspects of this case we would love to ask Ms. Williams about,” Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele, who is prosecuting the case, told Judge Steven O’Neill. “But we’re not going to be able to do it because [the defense wants] to read select portions of a deposition into the record, which we can’t cross-examine.”
Cosby attorney Jaya Gupta argued it was Cosby’s constitutional right, as part of his defense, to include the testimony.
O’Neill said he would reserve ruling on the motion until Monday.
Cosby stands accused of drugging and sexually assaulting Constand, then an administrator at Temple University, in his Cheltenham, Pa., home in January 2004. He faces three counts of aggravated indecent assault for the alleged attack.
Jurors are expected to get the case as early as next week.