NORRISTOWN, Pa. — Prosecutors in Pennsylvania on Tuesday crossed their final hurdle to bring Bill Cosby to trial on charges that he drugged and sexually assaulted a woman he once mentored, with a judge ruling that enough evidence existed for the case to move forward.
While Cosby is fighting numerous civil cases involving similar accusations, the ruling, by Judge Elizabeth A. McHugh, means that the once popular entertainer must face at least one of his accusers in a criminal proceeding, likely to take place here this year.
“This case will move forward,” McHugh told the crowded courtroom in Montgomery County Courthouse.
The hearing, while routine, attracted widespread attention, with more than 100 members of the news media and public packed into the courtroom, and 50 others were seated in an overflow room nearby.
The day came more than 11 years after Andrea Constand, a former Temple University staff member, brought her complaint to the police about what she said was a drugging and sexual assault at Cosby’s home near here in early 2004.
Although a former district attorney in Montgomery County chose not to pursue charges in 2005, current prosecutors reopened the investigation last year after many other women came forward with similar accusations against Cosby.
Cosby, 78, who sat flanked by his three lawyers throughout the hearing, stood at the end and said, “Thank you.”
The judge wished him luck.
The ruling, a formal requirement for criminal trials in Pennsylvania, ended a first round of legal skirmishing that began as soon as the charges were filed five months ago.
Cosby’s lawyers had argued that the former district attorney promised never to prosecute Cosby as a way to induce him to testify in the civil suit brought by Constand, which was ultimately settled. But at a hearing in February, a trial court judge dismissed the defense’s challenges.