Appeals Court Puts Bill Cosby’s Criminal Sexual Assault Case On Hold

Actor and comedian Bill Cosby arrives for a court appearance Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2016, in Norristown, Pa. Cosby was arrested and charged with drugging and sexually assaulting a woman at his home in January 2004. A j... Actor and comedian Bill Cosby arrives for a court appearance Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2016, in Norristown, Pa. Cosby was arrested and charged with drugging and sexually assaulting a woman at his home in January 2004. A judge will decide whether to dismiss a sexual assault case against the comedian over an unwritten promise of immunity that a former prosecutor says he gave Cosby's now-deceased lawyer. (Ed Hille/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP, Pool) MORE LESS

NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) — Bill Cosby’s preliminary hearing in a criminal sex-assault case is on hold while a Pennsylvania appeals court considers his effort to have the case thrown out before trial.

The Pennsylvania Superior Court put the case on hold Tuesday while the court weighs the prosecution request to shut down Cosby’s pretrial appeal.

The 78-year-old Cosby is accused of drugging and molesting a Temple University employee in his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004.

He says a former district attorney promised he would never be charged in the case.

A different district attorney last year reopened the case and filed charges against Cosby in December, before the statute of limitations expired.

The preliminary hearing to determine if probable cause exists to send the case to trial had been set for March 8.

Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  1. The best “justice” money can buy.

  2. he’s old… he’s just trying to run out the clock… it’s all becomes moot when he dies…

  3. I don’t think so. This is something the DA’s office wants cleared up once and for all, because Cosby will have his attorney’s raise again and again during the trial, to work over the jury on some ‘worry’ about ‘fairness’. It’s a variation on the O.J. defense, i.e. putting ‘whitey’s’ justice system on trial for racial prejudice.

    Youj think O.J. was ‘beloved’ by the LA county African-American community? You think that made the mostly black jury pool especially vulnerable to being manipulated into thinking the trial verdict was a blow for justice swung at the LAPD? If you think that - and you should, cuz that happened - imagine what the prosecution here is concerned about with a figure that’s been even MORE beloved in urban hellhole Philly than O.J. EVER was anywhere.

    If I were prosecuting here, I’d be doing no different: I’d get this thing in front of the appeal court now, before it even starts seriously affecting the jury pool.

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