Disgraced television legend Bill Cosby will face trial over accusations that he sexually assaulted a woman after plying her with drugs at his Philadelphia home 12 years ago, a judge ruled today.
The 78-year-old pioneering black comedian looked subdued and kept his glance averted from onlookers as he left a county court house in Pennsylvania, dressed in a grey suit and floral tie, leaning on a member of his entourage.
More than 50 women have publicly alleged sexual abuse at the hands of the former megastar, who attained his greatest fame for his role as a lovable obstetrician and family man in the hit 1980s sitcom "The Cosby Show."
But the allegations dating from 2004 and made by Andrea Constand, who worked for Temple University basketball team and now lives in Canada, have amounted to the only criminal assault charge brought against him.
Judge Elizabeth McHugh ruled after a three-hour preliminary hearing in Norristown, just outside Philadelphia that there is enough evidence to put Cosby on trial.
"We're here because we want to seek the truth. We want to service justice," Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele told reporters.
"We're going to move forward on the case and consequently look forward to getting a trial date," he added.
The former star posted bail at $1 million in the case last December but has yet to enter a plea. If he pleads guilty, he can still avoid the enormous publicity that will come with one of America's most famous entertainers going on trial.
Cosby has become a pariah since an avalanche of women accused him of feeding them pills and having sex with them over four decades.
Constand, 43, did not attend today's hearing but Steele called as a witness Katherine Hart, a detective who took her original deposition in January 2005 detailing the alleged assault.
Hart read out passages from the deposition in which Constand said Cosby plied her with pills and wine until she was unable to resist his advances at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004.
