A judge sweeps aside a claim by an ex-district attorney that the comedian is immune from prosecution, paving the way for a trial.
A judge has refused to throw out a case against comedian Bill Cosby, paving the way for him to be tried for sexual assault.
JuIt was decided that a former district attorney’s claim that he granted the comedian immunity from prosecution a decade ago did not stand.
There will now be a preliminary hearing on 8 March to see if prosecutors have enough evidence to prove Cosby assaulted his accuser at his home in the Philadelphia area in 2004.
The case was reopened last year as a result of evidence in a deposition made by Cosby as part of a lawsuit against him brought by his accuser.
The disgraced star of 1980s hit TV programme The Cosby Show said in his deposition that he obtained muscle relaxant drugs to give to women he wanted to have sex with.
He gave three of the pills he acquired to the woman who accused him of sexual assault in the case.
The judge also denied a defence request to disqualify the prosecutor from the case.