Bill Cosby's 2005 deposition shouldn't be allowed in rape case, former prosecutor claims

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A former district attorney in Pennsylvania warned in an email last year that Bill Cosby’s lurid 2005 deposition in a civil case couldn’t be used as the basis for a criminal case against the disgraced comedian — a claim countered by the current prosecutors, according to reports.

In the email, obtained by CNN, former Montgomery County district attorney Bruce Castor told his successor that a verbal agreement that led to Cosby’s testimony in a 2005 civil sexual assault case would disqualify the disturbing tale Cosby told as evidence.

“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 to then-DA Risa Vetri Ferman. “I cannot believe any state court judge would allow that deposition into evidence.”

The current district attorney argued that Castor’s claim is bogus.

“There is a specific legal method to grant immunity. That was not done in 2005,” current district attorney, Kevin Steele, who was elected in November partially on the promise he would prosecute Cosby, told CNN Friday.

Criminal charges were announced against Cosby last month, just weeks before the statute of limitations ran out, by Steele.

Cosby was charged with sexually assaulting Andrea Constand, a Temple University employee, at his suburban Philadelphia mansion in 2004.

Constand filed her civil suit against Cosby and settled out of court the following year.

In the civil deposition, Cosby said under oath that he gave Constand halved pills that he described as “three friends to make (her) relax,” according to the affidavit.

He also acknowledged under oath that he obtained seven prescriptions in his own name for Quaaludes for the purpose of having sex with women.

The deposition is considered a key piece of evidence, cited by prosecutors as the impetus for reopening the case.

The charges mark the first criminal prosecution of the diminishing star and sets the stage for what could be a blockbuster trial involving some of the roughly 60 other accusers who say they were sexually assaulted by Cosby.

The 78-year-old was released on $1 million bail and faces up to a decade behind bars if convicted.

In a statement Monday, Cosby’s attorneys claimed that the charges against the former funnyman were “illegally, improperly and unethically brought by District Attorney Kevin Steele and his office.”

According to the statement, the charges “violate an express agreement made by the Montgomery County District Attorney in 2005, in which the Commonwealth agreed that Mr. Cosby would never be prosecuted with respect to the allegations of sexual assault made by complainant Andrea Constand.”