Bill Cosby will return to court in November to face a second round of proceedings in a criminal sexual assault case brought against him by Andrea Constand.
The disgraced comedian was charged with three counts of felony aggravated indecent assault in 2015 after Constand accused him of drugging and molesting her at his home in 2004.
The original trial, which began on 5 June, ended in a mistrial 12 days later, when a 12-person jury was unable to reach a verdict on the matter following over 53 hours of deliberation, and, according to bosses at the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office in Pennsylvania, a date for the retrial has now been set by Judge Steven O’Neill for 6 November.
Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office representatives made the announcement via the legal authority’s official Twitter account on Thursday a week after the start date for another sexual assault case against Cosby was revealed.
Last Tuesday, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Craig Kaplan set 30 July, 2018 as a tentative date for the first day of proceedings in a sexual assault civil trial brought against Cosby by Judy Huth, who filed a sexual assault lawsuit against The Cosby Show star in December, 2014. Huth claims she was just 15 when he reportedly touched her vagina and then forced himself upon her at a Playboy Mansion party in California in 1974.
As the 79-year-old prepares for the upcoming legal cases, he will not be embarking on a controversial sexual assault speaking tour that was originally announced by his publicist just days after the Constand criminal case was declared a mistrial.
Cosby released a statement denying the contentious chat series would take place. It read: “The current propaganda that I am going to conduct a sexual assault tour is false (and) any further information about public plans will be given at the appropriate time.”
More than 50 women have come forward with decades-old accusations of inappropriate behavior, drugging and/or rape against Cosby since late 2014. The comedian denies any wrongdoing.