Former Pennsylvanian prosecutor Bruce Castor has justified the immunity deal he struck with Invoice Cosby that in the end led to his freedom this week — insisting his successor ought to have identified to not ignore it.
The previous Montgomery County District Lawyer instructed WPVI that he solely struck the bizarre deal when he’d exhausted his authorized choices to cost Cosby with intercourse crimes — however felt he might nonetheless assist accuser Andrea Constand get hundreds of thousands in a civil go well with.
“In 2005, I had come to the conclusion that there was not sufficient proof to arrest and convict him,” Castor mentioned of the actor and accusations that he drugged and molested Constand in his Pennsylvania mansion in 2004.
“The alternatives turned do nothing or do one thing. I selected to do one thing,” mentioned Castor, who this yr was a part of former President Trump’s authorized crew in his impeachment trial over the Capitol siege.
Castor supplied Cosby immunity from conviction provided that he participated in a deposition the place he was unable to plead the Fifth.
In that deposition, Cosby admitted giving Quaaludes to “ladies with whom he needed to have sexual activity,” courtroom filings have mentioned.
Cantor mentioned his hope had all the time been that Cosby “would say issues that had been incriminating and they’d then use that to leverage a settlement price hundreds of thousands of {dollars}.”
“Effectively, that’s precisely what occurred,” he instructed WPVI of the $3.5 million payout.
Regardless of the immunity deal, Cosby was charged in 2015 — after damning particulars from the 10-year-old deposition had been unsealed — resulting in his conviction and three- to 10-year jail sentence in 2018.
However the deal can be why that conviction was overturned Wednesday, with Pennsylvania’s highest courtroom ruling that the immunity ought to have been upheld and guarded Cosby from expenses.
Cantor insisted he warned his successor, noting how the Supreme Courtroom ruling “cited my memo, my non-public memo” to the D.A. on the time, Kevin Steele.
The memo warned, “Don’t do that since you’re going to have an issue with utilizing the deposition testimony,” he instructed WPVI, saying that “it solely existed as a result of I mentioned I wasn’t going to prosecute Cosby.”
He beforehand mentioned that Cosby “would’ve needed to have been nuts to say these issues if there was any probability he might’ve been prosecuted.”
In addition to getting his freedom, Cosby might now even be capable to sue over how his case was dealt with, Cantor mentioned.
“Whether or not Montgomery County has legal responsibility, whether or not Kevin Steele has a disciplinary legal responsibility, stays to be seen,” mentioned Castor.
Steele launched a press release Wednesday saying that Cosby “was discovered responsible by a jury and now goes free on a procedural problem that’s irrelevant to the details of the crime.”
“My hope is that this resolution is not going to dampen the reporting of sexual assaults by victims,” the assertion mentioned.
“We nonetheless consider that nobody is above the legislation—together with those that are wealthy, well-known and highly effective.”
