What's Next For Bill Cosby: Judge Denies 12 Witnesses From Testifying Against Comedian In Sexual Assault Trial

The judge in the Bill Cosby sexual assault trial ruled Friday to allow only one other accuser to testify against the 79-year-old comedian, denying prosecutors 12 other "prior bad act" witnesses. The one witness, who claims Cosby assaulted her in 1996, joins Andrea Constand, a former Temple University basketball player who accused Cosby of sexual assault in 2005.

Cosby, accused of sexual assault by over 50 women, is charged with three counts of sexual assault in a case that was reopened in 2015 and will go to trial in June. Prosecutors reopened the 2005 case of Constand, who said Cosby invited her over to his home and then sexually assaulted her after giving her pills that made her semi-conscious and unable to move.

The defense objected to allowing 13 women to testify, claiming the women’s memories were tainted. They also argued that the 13 witnesses would elongate the trial process.

“[The judge] will ask, ‘Do we really want to have in effect 13 separate trials?’” Isabelle A. Kirshner, a criminal defense lawyer, told the New York Times in September.

Prosecutors reopened the case after deposition recordings, which had been sealed for 10 years, were unsealed in 2015 at the request of the Associated Press. In the recordings, Cosby admitted to giving women quaaludes, a sedative drug that induces sleep, before having sex with them.

Cosby said he received seven prescriptions for quaaludes in the 1970s despite no personal medical need for them and kept them on hand to give to women. When asked how he used the drugs, Cosby said, “the same as a person would say, ‘Have a drink.’”