NORRISTOWN, Pa. _ It took less than 10 minutes Monday for a pivotal hearing in Bill Cosby's sexual assault case to descend into acrimony, with lawyers on both sides accusing the others of behavior so unethical that it should put the 80-year-old comedian's retrial in doubt.
Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele sought from the outset to have Cosby's new defense team thrown off the case. He accused the attorneys of lying to the court and described their pretrial strategy as "at best incompetent and otherwise unethical."
The defense, led by celebrity lawyer Tom Mesereau, shot back, claiming prosecutors had destroyed evidence and had allowed their star witness to lie under oath _ ethical breaches that they cited in a push for immediate dismissal of the case.
Montgomery County Judge Steven T. O'Neill remained unswayed by either side's efforts, but the bitter sparring suggested that the tone of Cosby's second trial _ scheduled to begin next month _ could be entirely more hostile than the first, which ended with a hung jury last June.
The speed with which Monday's proceedings in Norristown turned contentious was all the more remarkable because the hearing began on a remarkably human note.
As he entered the courtroom, O'Neill paused to offer condolences to Cosby, whose 44-year-old daughter, Ensa, died a week earlier.
"Mr. Cosby, the court does extend its sympathies," he said.
But as soon as the lawyers had moved on to the first of several key disputes on what evidence should be put before the jury in Cosby's second trial, the hostilities began to simmer across the courtroom.
The dispute between both sides centers on their handling of Marguerite "Margo" Jackson, a Temple University employee and potential key witness for the defense. She claims that she shared hotel rooms with the case's central accuser, Andrea Constand, on several occasions while traveling with Temple's women's basketball team.
On one such trip, Jackson has said in a sworn affidavit, Constand suggested that she could make up a story about a celebrity sexually assaulting her and use it to extort money.
Constand, then a manager for the basketball team, first came forward in 2005 accusing Cosby of drugging and assaulting her at his Cheltenham mansion a year prior.
During the first trial, Constand testified that she never met Jackson, and O'Neill barred her testimony.
But defense lawyer Kathleen Bliss renewed her efforts Monday to put Jackson on the witness stand and accused prosecutors of destroying notes of an interview they had with the woman last year. What's more, Bliss alleged, Steele allowed Constand to lie on the witness stand about her past relationship with the woman.
"This isn't some flake that was just pulled off of a street corner," Bliss said. "This woman has obvious credibility. ... These prosecutors knowing that Margo Jackson made this statement, allowed Ms. Constand to deny knowing her, when that was clearly false."
Steele, however, scoffed at the defense's claim. He insisted that no notes were taken during his office's interview with Jackson and said that they had any number of reasons to doubt her testimony _ chiefly, that Cosby himself has admitted to having a past sexual liaison with Constand.
Steele urged the judge to ignore "conspiracy theories" and to refuse to grant permission for Bliss and her colleagues _ most of whom are from out of state _ to practice in Pennsylvania's courts.
"For them to make these allegations is reckless and false," he said.
The hearing is expected to continue into Tuesday as O'Neill makes several key decisions that will shape the course of the retrial, including prosecutors' bid to include testimony from 19 other women who have accused Cosby of drugging and assaulting them in incidents that date back decades.
