NORRISTOWN, Pa. — Somebody get these lawyers a pudding pop!
A pre-trial hearing meant to quietly solve a few issues before Bill Cosby’s June sexual assault trial erupted into a screaming match between the comedian’s legal team and the district attorney — dashing hopes of an early plea deal.
Lawyers from both sides of the sexual assault case bickered loudly in Tuesday’s pre-trial hearing over the defense team’s practice of publicizing the names of the women accusing the aging comedian of sexual assault.
Montgomery County Judge Steven O’Neill – holding a two-day hearing on whether prosecutors can call any or all of the 13 accusers at next year’s trial — cautioned both sides to quit the rhetoric and keep his courtroom civil.
The high-stakes hearing was testy from the start as District Attorney Kevin Steele clashed with Cosby lawyer Brian McMonagle over the defense’s insistence on identifying accusers by name in public documents and a court hearing.
Steele became enraged when McMonagle argued that prosecutors had provided him with the names of the accusers. Arguing that the names were disclosed during the pretrial discovery process and were not part of the public record, Steele suggested that Cosby’s lawyers were publicizing them in a “simple attempt to intimidate the witnesses.”
Pointing to a large projector screen facing the galleys, to be eventually used by defense in their arguments for this hearing, Steele complained, “They’ve got their powerpoint up right here facing the media.”
McMonagle countered that most of the accusers had already gone public with their allegations.
“These are witnesses in a trial. They are not children,” McMonagle argued.
Cosby’s lawyers want the accusers barred from testifying at his trial on charges that he sexually assaulted a woman at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004. The defense was expected to attack their credibility and relevance as they try to keep them off the witness stand.
O’Neill ended up ruling that Cosby’s lawyers could identify 11 of the women who had already self-identified in the media. The remaining two who have stayed out of the spotlight won’t be identified in court, the judge said.
Cosby, 79, remained quiet during the testy exchange.
When the funnyman entered the Philadelphia court, he tried to joke with security officers who used a security wand to check him for weapons.
“Don’t tase me bro,” he quipped. The joke fell flat.
With Post wires
Some of Cosby’s old jokes now come off as creepy: