Bill Cosby's lawyer gets in a screaming match with the DA during a hearing about his rape accusers - as shamed comedian jokes with guards 'don't tase me bro' 

  • Bill Cosby was all smiles as he entered a Pennsylvania courtroom on Tuesday, joking with security guards: 'Don't tase me bro' 
  • The two-day hearing has been set up to determine whether 13 women who accuse Cosby of rape can testify at his upcoming trial 
  • The DA and Cosby's defense lawyer quickly got into a screaming match over whether the identity of Cosby's accusers could be made public
  • In the end, Judge Steven T. O’Neill ruled that those women who had not yet come forward must not be named by the defense 
  • Cosby faces 10 years in prison if convicted of sexually assaulting a former Temple University basketball team manager Andrea Costand 

Bill Cosby was back in a Pennsylvania courtroom on Tuesday where a judge was deciding whether or not to allow 13 of the women who have accused the actor of rape to testify against him in his upcoming trial.

The 79-year-old was all smiles though as he entered the courtroom with members of his legal team, smiling and waving to those in the crowd and at one point joking with the security guards by telling them: 'Don't tase me bro.' 

He walked into the court room holding a cane which he did not seem to use, choosing instead to lean on a member of his legal team. 

Things were far less jovial however once the hearing got underway, with the district attorney and defense team engaging in a screaming match with one another. 

Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele took issue with the defense's naming of the 13 victims, saying that they were releasing details about the individuals in hopes of intimidating them before the trial.

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Jovil fella: Bill Cosby (above on Tuesday) was all smiles as he entered a Pennsylvania courtroom on Tuesday, joking with security guards: 'Don't tase me bro'

On the offense: Cosby's lawyer Brian McMonagle (above with his fellow counsel Angela Agrusa) argued that the names of all 13 accusers should be made public in court 

Case: Cosby faces 10 years in prison if convicted of sexually assaulting a former Temple University basketball team manager Andrea Costand (above in December 2015)

Cosby's lawyer Brian McMonagle responded to this by saying: 'Most of them have been interviewed on television. Who’s hiding names? Some of them have been interviewed for books. Some of them have been on tours.'

He then added: 'I really don’t care what their names are. Is the world not going to know their names? What are we doing here? This is silly. It really is silly.'

Of the 13 women who are seeking to possibly testify in the upcoming trial, the identities of 11 have made public by the women coming forward themselves to give interviews and speak about their allegations against Cosby. 

Judge Steven T. O’Neill eventually ruled that the two women who had not yet been publicly revealed should not be named in court documents out of courtesy. 

Cosby faces 10 years in prison if convicted of sexually assaulting a former Temple University basketball team manager Andrea Costand.

His lawyers are hoping that after this two-day hearing the judge will rule that the 13 women who have accused him of drugging and raping them in the past will not be allowed to testify in court.

The defense had originally hoped to question the women in person over this two-day period, nut judge O'Neill rejected that motion.  

The defense plans to prove that the sex between Cosby and Constand - who is openly gay and was in a relationship with a woman at the time of the alleged assault - was consensual.

BILL COBY'S 13 ACCUSERS

Heidi Thomas (Then: 24)

Thomas' agent sent the aspiring actress to meet Cosby for career advice and the limo he sent took her to a private house where she said he gave her a drink so she could play the intoxicated person in a script he gave her. During intermittent bouts of consciousness, she said, she was naked and Cosby forced her to perform oral sex.

 Jane Doe 1 (Then: 21)

She was a flight attendant when she met Cosby in about 1964. After being friends for several months, she said, he offered her Champagne at the Drake Hotel in Chicago, which left her unable to ward off his sexual advances before she passed out.

Jane Doe 2 (Then: Early 20s)

Cosby offered her quaaludes in a limousine one day, which she said she declined. She then had three or four glasses of Champagne but believes they contained an intoxicant that left her unconscious. She woke up naked in a hotel room feeling sore and said she had been sexually assaulted.

Cindra Ladd (Then: 21)

Ladd, a model-turned-Hollywood executive married to former MGM chairman Alan Ladd Jr., met Cosby in 1969 when he offered career advice. They were at his friend's house in New York one day when she complained about having a headache and he gave her a pill he called "a miracle cure" from his doctor. She became incapacitated, and Cosby raped her, she said.

 Donna Motsinger (Then: 26)

Motsinger was a waitress at the Trident restaurant in Sausalito, California, a favorite of Cosby's. He befriended Motsinger and her 9-year-old son. In 1972, Motsinger said, she accepted an invitation to Cosby's show and drank wine he gave her in the limousine on the way there. When a headache ensued, she took a pill he handed her. She said she recalls being fondled before waking up the next day, nearly naked, at her own home.

Margie Shapiro (Then: 19)

Shapiro worked at Castle Donuts in Santa Monica, California, in 1975 when Cosby stopped by. He invited her to the set of Mother, Jugs & Speed and then to a dinner party, she says, but instead took her to a house near the Playboy Mansion, where they played pinball, fueled by Cosby's challenge that whoever lost would have to take a pill she believed to be a quaalude. She lost. She said she recalls waking up to find Cosby having sex with her.

 Linda Brown (Then: 21)

Brown's agent sent the aspiring model to attend Cosby's show in Toronto and have dinner with him afterward in 1969. He invited her to his hotel room to give her a gift and offered her a soda that caused her to black out, she said, before raping her.

Therese Serignese (Then: 18)

Serignese, now a nurse, was in the gift shop of the Las Vegas Hilton in about 1975 when she met Cosby. He later invited her to his show and then to a room backstage, where he gave her two pills that left her incapacitated before he raped her, she said. Cosby, in a 2006 deposition in Constand's lawsuit, testified that he gave Serignese quaaludes before a consensual sexual encounter.

Linda Kirkpatrick (Then: 25)

Kirkpatrick met Cosby while playing against him in a tennis tournament in 1981. He offered her tickets to his show at the Las Vegas Hilton, where he gave her a drink in his dressing room that left her incapacitated, she said. She next recalls him being on top of her, kissing her and rubbing against her.

Rebecca Neal (Then: 28)

Neal worked as a masseuse at a Las Vegas health club where Cosby played tennis in the mid-1980s. He befriended her mother and aunt there, leading her to accept an invitation to his show at the Las Vegas Hilton and dinner afterward. Cosby urged her to have a drink set before her while he ate. She said he later raped her in his room while she was too disoriented to give consent. 

Lise-Lotte Lublin (Then: 23)

Lublin met Cosby in 1989. She and her mother went for a run with Cosby, and he gave them show tickets. He prodded her to take two drinks to relax, which she ultimately did. She said she recalls seeing Cosby stroking her hair and walking down a hall before she woke up at home two days later. She said she believes she was sexually assaulted.

Kacey (Then: 29)

The witness worked for one of Cosby's agents and had known the entertainer for six years when he asked her to discuss her acting ambitions. He was in a robe when she arrived and offered her wine and a pill that she consumed. She said she then recalls being sexually assaulted by Cosby on his bed.

Janice Baker-Kiney (Then: 23)

Baker-Kinney  went to a pizza party at a nearby home where Cosby was staying in 1982. He insisted she take two pills, she said, before the backgammon game they were playing went blurry. She said she recalls seeing her blouse unbuttoned and his pants unzipped before she awoke naked with signs she had been sexually assaulted.

In her affidavit Constand told police that Cosby gave her wine and pills and then sexually assaulted her while she was unconscious.

'I got scared,' Constand told police of the alleged assault. 'I had no strength in my legs. They felt rubbery and like jelly. I felt spacey. Everything was blurry or dizzy. I had no thought to call 911.'

She later told police: 'I told him, "I can't even talk, Mr. Cosby." I started to panic.'

Constand claims she arrived at Cosby's home on the night in question and was greeted by the actor, who was wearing a sweatsuit.

The two spoke about Constand's future, and she told Cosby she was feeling 'drained' and 'emotionally occupied.'

That is when Cosby allegedly went upstairs and returned with three blue pills. telling Constand: 'These will make you feel good. The blue things will take the edge off.'

Constand claims she then asked if the pills were herbal, to which Cosby replied: 'Yes. Down them. Put 'em down. Put them in your mouth.'

According to the affidavit of probable cause, Cosby then told Constand to have some wine, and soon after she began to have trouble speaking and seeing.

Cosby then allegedly told her to lie down on the couch, and soon after, according to the affidavit of probable hearing, was 'fondling her breasts, put his hands into her pants, and penetrated her vagina with his fingers'.

He also allegedly took her hand and placed it on his erect penis.

Constand claims she woke up hours later around 4am and realized her bra was undone and above her breasts and that her sweater was bunched up.

As she made her way to the door she claims Cosby was standing there in a robe and holding a muffin, which he handed to her as she left while saying: 'Alright.'

Constand, the former director of operations for Temple's women's basketball team and a one time college basketball star herself, launched a legal suit against Cosby, a man she called her 'mentor', in March 2005.

Now 42, she said she first met Cosby, a Temple alum, in November 2002 and the pair became friends and she was a frequent guest at dinner parties at his home.

The case against him emerged just days before Pennsylvania's 12-year statute of limitation deadline for pressing charges was about to run out and despite a previous DA declining to charge Cosby a decade ago.

Cosby previously said under oath that he had consensual sexual contact with Constand.

The criminal complaint alleges that on the night in question Cosby told Constand to take three blue pills that left her feeling weak and then led her to a sofa where the assault took place.

When she woke up the next morning he gave her a muffin and sent her home.

Steele said at the press conference in December that Cosby made two failed sexual advances towards Constand before the incident now in question.

The affidavit of probable cause describes both incidents, as well as the night of the alleged assault.

Constand claims that the first time Cosby made an advance at her was after the two shared a meal at his house and were sitting on his sofa having a discussion.

That is when 'without warning, Cosby reached over and touched her pants, her waist, and her inner thigh', according to the affidavit of probable cause.

She claims she then excused herself, went to the bathroom, gathered her things and left.

The next time he made an advance at her also occurred at his home in Elkins Park, and this time he 'unbuttoned her pants and began touching her,' according to the affidavit of probable cause.

Once again Constand claims she left soon after.

Then, sometime between mid-January and mid-February 2004, the alleged sexual assault occurred.

Constand later filed a civil suit against Cosby which he settled for undisclosed terms in 2006. He also agreed to give a deposition, which was released last July.

It was the release of that deposition and the admissions that Cosby made that led to Montgomery County prosecutors pressing charges.

Cosby's lawyers said in a statement shortly after the new charges were announced; 'The charge by the Montgomery County District Attorney's office came as no surprise, filed 12 years after the alleged incident and coming on the heels of a hotly contested election for this county's DA during which this case was made the focal point.

'Make no mistake, we intend to mount a vigorous defense against this unjustified charge.'

Cosby has been out on $1million bail since December 30 when he was charged in Montgomery County.

In February he also sued Constand claiming she violated the terms of their civil settlement by agreeing to cooperate in the criminal probe against him. 

 

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