The deal supersedes the use of that testimony as evidence. If there is OTHER evidence, that obviously can be used against him.
However, in Pennsylvania at least, for this particular instance of sexual assault, the statute of limitations has run out.
If there are other jurisdictions with other statutes of limitations, and enough evidence, he could be charged somewhere else. Likewise, if there is evidence in Pennsylvania for other, more recent assaults he could be charged with those.
He was in jail after being found guilty of a single sexual assault. Foe that one crime, he will not face any further consequences.
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I'm having trouble envisioning a scenario where it would make sense for a DA to give a person accused of sexual assault immunity as part of a civil trial. What would the point of that be? Would it be to remove 5th Amendment protection?
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Originally Posted by GirlySports
There are deals for lesser charges, but a deal for no charges? Does that make sense?
If there is a promise for testimony for no charges, then what is the testimony for?
Immunity deals are made all the time, but usually for testimony against someone else and usually for more serious charges or someone higher up the food chain of a criminal enterprise.
This one is just weird though.
Have to say though that if that deal was made, then it has to be honored and
im guessing, as mentioned, a massive lawsuit comes out of this.
I'm having trouble envisioning a scenario where it would make sense for a DA to give a person accused of sexual assault immunity as part of a civil trial. What would the point of that be? Would it be to remove 5th Amendment protection?
Yes, 100% to remove 5th amendment protection.
So keep in mind that he was only tried and convicted against one of the accusers.
The event in question happened in January of 2004. She filed a complaint a year later in 2005.
In early 2005 there was a criminal investigation as a result of the complaint and there wasn't enough evidence to pursue charges against Cosby. Criminally, that was pretty much it, it would have been over. If you're not finding evidence for an event like this that took place a year ago, you're almost certainly not going to find it in the future.
In later 2005 it went to a civil case. The lawyer was like "meh, he'll just claim fifth amendment to anything and he's not going to have anything happen to him criminally, so let's just give him the immunity to get him to speak." Which sort of works as Cosby agreed, and eventually they settled for 3.5M, who knows what happens if he simply refuses to speak.
Then, allegations start to surface with Hannibal Buress comedy really making it out to the forefront, Janice Dickinson etc. come forward. The new prosecutors go back to that deposition, see all the stuff he says and then uses it to get him convicted. The jurors say as much: https://www.vulture.com/2018/04/cosb...ays-juror.html
So yeah, I'm not sure I fault the lawyer too much. It's a ####ty situation but if he doesn't give immunity, Cosby doesn't even go to court criminally.
He was sued by Andrea Constand for sexual assault. During that lawsuit, he was promised by the Pennsylvania DA that, if he gave testimony, he would not be charged. He then gave this testimony.
?!?!?!??!?!?!
Obviously I don't know the particulars of the circumstances behind this decision, but this seems absolutely NUTS to me. Why the hell would the DA offer the promise to not charge him based on the testimony he was going to give in the deposition, if the testimony in the deposition was going to be regarding sexual assault allegations against him?!?! The DA had to have known Cosby was either going to tell the truth and incriminate himself, or lie and perjure himself. Either way I don't see why the DA had any incentive to get Cosby to agree to the deposition with that promise.
Fire this man into the sun with Cosby attached human centipede style.
Again, pretty much the only reason Cosby served almost three years in prison and had to attend multiple criminal trials while we now know who he truly is.
So, I'm not sure if he's a ####ty person (I mean he is a lawyer ) or much of anything else about him or his career, but I don't fault him too much here.
) or much of anything else about him or his career, but I don't fault him too much here.
