The Pennsylvania Supreme Court said District Attorney Kevin Steele, who decided to arrest Cosby, should keep his predecessor’s promise not to prosecute Cosby when he later presented potentially incriminating evidence in Andrea Constant’s civil suit.
Convicted him of sexual assault and released him from prison on Wednesday in a shocking reversal of the fate of the comedian once known as “America’s father” and ruled that the prosecutor who brought the case must stick to the agreement of his bound predecessor, Cosby. not to be charged.
Cosby, 83, lit his victory over helicopter sign when he sneaked into suburban Philadelphia after serving nearly three years from three to 10 years in prison for substance abuse and injury to Temple University sports administrator in 2004.
Former show star Cosby – the first celebrity to be tried and convicted in the #MeToo era – didn’t comment on his arrival and smiled and then nodded at the press conference outside where attorney Jennifer Bonjein said. “We’re glad we brought Host Cosby” She served an unfair sentence for three years and did it with dignity and principles,” he added.
In a statement, Constant and his lawyers called the decision disappointing and, like many supporters, expressed concern that it could prevent victims of sexual assault from moving on. “We ask all victims to hear their voices,” they added.
Cosby was arrested in 2015 when a prosecutor armed with reprinted evidence — a damaging commission delay in a lawsuit filed by Constand — filed charges against him just days before the 12-year statute of limitations expired.
However, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court said District Attorney Kevin Steele, who decided to arrest Cosby, was required to fulfill his predecessor’s promise not to press charges against the actor.
Judge David Wecht, writing for a separate court, said Cosby relied on the former prosecutor’s decision not to indict him when the comedian made his potentially incriminating testimony in Constant’s civil case. The court called Cosby’s arrest “an insult to basic justice, especially when it comes to prosecutions that have been denied for more than a decade.”
The judges said that dropping sentences and barring further prosecutions was “the only way that society has reasonable expectations of our elected prosecutors and our criminal justice system.”