The judge overseeing the pretrial proceedings involving Bill Cosby's alleged rape of an employee of his Temple University alma mater has ruled that excerpts from a 2005 deposition, in which he makes mention of the administering of Quaaludes to her, may be used as evidence against him.
Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge Steven O'Neill ruled on two requests pushed forward by the prosecution. In addition to the 2005 deposition, he was asked to rule on whether an excerpt from a book he wrote, titled "Childhood," may be raised during trial. In the book, Cosby at one point makes a reference to "Spanish Fly" that alleged victim Andrea Constand's legal team believes in projecting his the light in which he views date rape drugs. Cosby calls Spanish Fly an "aphrodisiac so potent that it could have made Lena Horne surrender to Fat Albert," in the book. Judge O'Neill would turn down the request of the prosecution to use the excerpt in the trial.
The legal battle erected before Cosby stems from an accusation made by Constand after they had sexual relations in 2004. Constand claims that she had been an invited guest in Cosby's home one evening, having shown up in comfortable clothes per his request. But she says she had no intentions to bed the legendary comedian and didn't anticipate what would happen after she took some pills he offered her to "take the edge off," in light of some personal struggles she had made him aware of at the time. According to Constand, she wound up being sexually assaulted by Cosby that night.
Cosby has maintained that Constand knowingly took the pills and that the sex was consensual. During the '05 deposition that the prosecution will use to challenge him with, Cosby admits to offering drugs that numerous women would accept and consent to taking before they'd lay up with him. The ruling will serve as an obstacle for Cosby's defense, as they attempt to save him from possibly doing 10 or more years in prison. His trial begins on June 5.
Source: cnn.com
