Bill Cosby‘s sexual assault trial ended in a mistrial last summer. Now prosecutors are asking as many as 19 women to testify against Cosby in a retrial.
Cosby, who has been accused of sexual assault by more than 60 women, was due in court on Monday for a pretrial hearing, and his attorneys are attempting to stop the women from testifying. In a court filing, Cosby’s lawyers claimed that “developing a defense to any of these outdated claims will require unusual amounts of investigative effort that cannot be completed by the present trial date.”
The 2017 trial included testimony from Andrea Constand, who alleged Cosby drugged and assaulted her at his home in 2004, and Kelly Johnson—who worked for Cosby’s agent and alleged that Cosby drugged and assaulted her in 1996. An anonymous juror from that trial told CNN last summer that a retrial would be a “waste of money” if there’s “no new evidence.”
The retrial starts April 2, with jury selection on March 29.
H/T Associated Press