More than 50 women have accused Bill Cosby of sexual assault and other alleged crimes, but only two will be permitted to testify in the only criminal case against him set to go to trial. On Friday, a judge ruled that in addition to Andrea Constand, the woman at the center of Cosby’s sexual-assault trial, only one other accuser can testify to back up Constand’s claims. (Constand sued Cosby in 2005 for allegedly sexually assaulting her in 2004; the case was reopened in 2015 and Cosby was later charged.) Prosecutors had wanted 13 other accusers to testify as “prior bad acts” witnesses, but Cosby’s lawyers argued that their old “casting couch” claims aren’t evidence of “signature” behavior. The one unnamed accuser who will be allowed to testify says Cosby assaulted her in 1996. Cosby’s trial is scheduled to begin in June.
