PHILADELPHIA _ Bill Cosby now awaits a judge's decision on whether 13 women who have accused him of sexual misconduct can testify at his trial on charges of sexually assaulting a woman at his Cheltenham home, as attorneys on both sides Tuesday made their final arguments in legal filings.
Cosby's attorneys said in court filings to Montgomery County Judge Steven T. O'Neill that prosecutors were trying to salvage an unwinnable case by adding "time-barred, ancient, and vague accusations never before reported" into evidence.
Prosecutors argued that the testimony of the additional accusers must be used against Cosby "to counter his inevitable attacks on the victim's credibility."
The filings came three weeks after a two-day hearing on the issue.
O'Neill has not indicated when he will rule. If he allows testimony from the additional accusers, it would transform the entertainer's sexual-assault trial from a he-said-she-said case to one that casts Cosby as a serial sexual predator.
Pennsylvania law allows testimony about so-called prior bad acts if it establishes a common scheme or pattern of behavior by a defendant.
But defense lawyers say the accusations from the 13 women differ too greatly from the allegations by Andrea Constand, whom Cosby is accused of drugging and assaulting in his mansion in 2004. The allegations span decades, and Cosby's attorneys submitted a chart describing discrepancies and differences among them.
"The commonwealth is asking the court to ... allow a jury to hear extremely prejudicial testimony about ancient accusations from the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s in a criminal trial where a man's liberty is at stake, after an astounding amount of media coverage that the proposed witnesses themselves have participated in extensively," attorneys Brian McMonagle and Angela Agrusa wrote in Tuesday's filing.
Prosecutors argued that the women's stories have "a high degree of similarities" and therefore suggest a signature move by the same perpetrator.
"Evidence of the prior sexual assaults would tend to prove that defendant did not mistakenly believe that Ms. Constand was awake or gave consent to his sexual assault," Assistant District Attorney Adrienne Jappe and Deputy District Attorney Robert Fallin wrote in their filing.
The judge could warn jurors the "limited purpose" by which they are able to consider the women's testimony, Jappe and Fallin argued, to prevent the possibility of unfair prejudice against Cosby.
Cosby, 79, is charged with aggravated indecent assault, and could face five to 10 years in prison if convicted. His trial is scheduled for June, although O'Neill has indicated he would like to hold it earlier if possible.
