PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Bill Cosby’s lawyers don’t want jurors hearing about a January 2005 phone call in which accuser Andrea Constand says she first told her mom that the comedian had drugged and molested her about a year earlier.
Cosby’s legal team argued in court papers on Tuesday that what was said during the call is hearsay and shouldn’t be mentioned at his retrial. Jury selection starts April 2. Final pretrial hearings are Thursday and Friday.
Constand and her mother, Gianna, testified about the call at Cosby’s first trial. Constand said she told her mother that Cosby had given her three blue pills before touching her without consent at his suburban Philadelphia home.
The 80-year-old Cosby has pleaded not guilty. His first trial ended in a hung jury.
The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they grant permission, which Constand has done.
