Cosby judge rejects new trial bid; Camille Cosby sees bias

For now, he is the only person using that day room, spokeswoman Amy Worden said. Several inmates are assigned to help him as part of their prison jobs, she said. He has also had several visitors.

Camille Cosby continued to issue searing attacks against Montgomery County Judge Steven O’Neill, as she has done since the first trial ended in a jury deadlock in June 2017. In the latest missive Tuesday, she again said he should have stepped down from the case because his wife has advocated for sex assault victims. O’Neill has heard the argument before and said his wife’s work has no bearing on his legal rulings.

The defence also renewed attacks on the judge over what they call his feud with a key pretrial witness, former county District Attorney Bruce Castor.

Castor had declined to arrest Cosby when the accuser first came forward in 2005 and said he’d promised Cosby he would never be charged. When a successor did, O’Neill ruled that any verbal promise Castor made wasn’t legally binding. In an affidavit attached to Tuesday’s appeal, Castor said he believed O’Neill’s ruling was influenced by a long-ago feud between them.

“Mr. Cosby had a right to have his petition reviewed and decided by a judge who could make a decision free of bias, or even the perception of bias, where the ability to prosecute hinged on the testimony of the 2005 district attorney,” his new lawyers, the latest of about 20 to work the criminal case, wrote in the appeal.

The defence also challenged O’Neill’s decisions to let five other accusers testify; let the jury hear portions of Cosby’s damaging deposition in the accuser’s related lawsuit; and declare Cosby a sexually violent predator who remained a threat to the community.

Maryclaire Dale, The Associated Press

by Canadian Press

Cosby judge rejects new trial bid; Camille Cosby sees bias

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