Bill Cosby will be allowed to appeal his 2018 sexual assault conviction, a court ruled Tuesday.
In a surprise decision, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court agreed to review two aspects of the case that put the disgraced funnyman behind bars.
Cosby, 82, is serving a three- to 10-year sentence after a jury found him guilty of drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand in 2004.
But the court will now review the original judge’s decision to allow prosecutors to call five other accusers and to introduce evidence that he’d given women Quaaludes.
During the trial, Constand’s testimony was bolstered by the five accusers, including supermodel Janice Dickinson, who each recalled how Cosby plied them with pills before sexually assaulting them.
Jurors also heard evidence that Cosby doled out the powerful sedative to women before having sex with them. He made the admissions in depositions taken in 2005 and 2006 as part of Constand’s civil lawsuit.
The court will also examine an agreement from a decade ago that Cosby had with former Philadelphia District Attorney Bruce Castor. That deal granted Cosby immunity from prosecution. The fallen comic said he relied on that promise before agreeing to the deposition.
The issues around the agreement and allowing testimony relating to the Quaaludes have been at the crux of the case since Cosby was charged back in December 2015 — just days before the 12-year statute of limitations on such accusations expired.
With Post wires