Former Prosecutor Could Be Key to Cosby’s Defense

Former Montgomery County, Pa., prosecutor Bruce Castor is expected to testify that he promised Bill Cosby not to charge him for an alleged sex assault, the Associated Press reports.

A judge will determine at a Feb. 2 hearing whether a legally binding agreement exists that protects the entertainer from criminal prosecution.

CNN said it obtained an email that Castor sent to his successor, Risa Ferman, three months before the current prosecutor filed criminal charges against Cosby.

In the email, Castor discusses his verbal agreement with Cosby’s attorneys 10 years ago. He hoped, at that time, that the deal not to prosecute would persuade the comedian not invoke his 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination during depositions.

Removing the fear of prosecution would allow Cosby to admit to giving sedatives to women he wanted to have sex with. Castor believed that move would give Cosby’s accuser Andrea Constand the best chance of winning her civil lawsuit.

“I can see no possibility that Cosby’s deposition could be used in a state criminal case, because I would have to testify as to what happened, and the deposition would be subject to suppression,” Castor wrote, according to CNN.

Cosby’s deposition, in which he made the admissions, is crucial to the current prosecutor Kevin Steele’s criminal case against the 78-year-old comedian.

According to the AP, Steele said he’s unaware of a signed immunity agreement.

“There is a specific legal method to grant immunity,” Steele told CNN. “That was not done in 2005.”

Constand’s attorney, Dolores Troiani, also said she’s unaware of a deal between the former prosecutor and Cosby.

Troiani stated: “He (Castor) said … that he talked to us about it. That’s a lie. It never happened,” the AP reports.

Read more at the Associated Press and CNN.

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