Cosby’s lawyers: We were wrong about hidden-evidence claim

“Facts matter,” prosecutors wrote in their rebuttal, filed around the same time Monday that Cosby’s lawyers were conceding their mistake.

“The facts and the truth were easily ascertainable,” prosecutors said, but Cosby and his lawyers “just did not care to find them.”

Instead, prosecutors said, Cosby’s lawyers appeared to be more interested in shifting the narrative about the case than focusing on the truth.

Jackson, who worked with Cosby accuser Andrea Constand at Temple University more than a decade ago, said Constand told her sometime in 2003 or 2004 that she was not sexually assaulted but could make up allegations to sue and get money.

Constand told jurors at last year’s trial that Cosby drugged and molested her at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004. Cosby has denied the allegations.

Judge Steven O’Neill blocked Cosby’s lawyers from calling Jackson to the witness stand at his first trial, ruling her testimony would be hearsay after Constand testified that she did not know the woman. O’Neill also is handling Cosby’s retrial.

Cosby’s spokesman, Andrew Wyatt, later read a statement from Jackson to reporters on the courthouse steps. Jackson recalled Constand commenting to her about setting up a “high-profile person” after they saw a television news report about a celebrity who was accused of drugging and sexually assaulting women.

Jackson said Constand claimed something similar happened to her. When pressed, Jackson said, Constand backed off and said she could “say it happened and file charges, file a civil suit, get the money, go to school and open up a business,” Jackson said.

The AP does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they grant permission, which Constand has done.

Michael R. Sisak, The Associated Press

by Canadian Press

Cosby’s lawyers: We were wrong about hidden-evidence claim

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