NBC 10, AT ISSUE with Rosemary Connors, #1 show at 11:30 am on Sundays.Legal Commentary on Bill Cosby’s Appeal process. 2/24/2019
Audio Title: Legal Commentary on Bill Cosby’s Appeal process. 2/24/2019 Enrique Latoison NBC 10 News
Audio Duration: 0:07:18
Number of Speakers: 3
Transcript
Female Anchor: Cosby’s lawyers are appealing his sentence stating 11 alleged errors by the trial judge. That appeal could be filed within the next 30 days.
Joining me now criminal defense attorney Enrique L1 Latoison. Latoison has his own practice, Latoison Law in Media, Delaware County. Thanks for being here.
Enrique Latoison: Thank you.
Female Anchor: Also joining us, Attorney Allison Borgatti. She’s a former Philadelphia assistant district attorney who’s now an associate with Archer and Greiner in Center City. Her focus, white collar defense, criminal defense and corruption. Thank you Allison.
Allison Borgatti: Thanks for having me.
Female Anchor: So first let’s talk about what we heard from Andrew Wyatt who sat down with my colleague Erin Coleman and also a message that Bill Cosby gave through Andrew Wyatt to Erin Coleman. He is insistent he is not guilty. He’s not remorseful and you heard from Andrew Wyatt just a moment ago that maybe women are lying in this case. Enrique, your thoughts.
Enrique Latoison: Well, we know that Bill Cosby’s defense has been very consistent from day one. He has always said he didn’t do it. He has never asked for any kind of remorse. He has never asked for any kind of leniency and the defense state shows from day one was that the women are lying and when you stick with that defense, they used it in Cosby one. They used it in trial number two, Cosby two and it was during number one that seemed to have worked out and of course two he was found guilty and he’s still sticking with that. He has not changed his position. Mr. Wyatt obviously is his PR guy.
So it’s his job to put out the story and put out exactly what Mr. Cosby is thinking. My personal opinion is we have to understand that when you are in the state system, you don’t have a guarantee to be paroled at your minimum. There’s no guarantee there. At some point, he’s going to have to be in front of the parole board and we don’t know how the parole board is going to perceive his lack of remorse or his lack of taking responsibility and that might affect him when he tries to go to get paroled.
Female Anchor: I see you nodding here Allison. I mean these words that we’re hearing from him behind bars, could this have an impact? Could this help or hurt him as his lawyers get ready to move forward with an appeal?
Allison Borgatti: Certainly and if he was to attend programs, while incarcerated, that would benefit him going forward with the parole board. But just because he was sentenced to three to ten years doesn’t mean when the clock hits three, he’s getting out. So to the extent that he’s not showing any remorse or not taking any steps to better himself while incarcerated, that could very well impact his ability to get out at his minimum, which would be three years.
Female Anchor: All right and let’s talk about an appeal.
Enrique Latoison: I think some of the big appeal issues that Cosby team is going to be focusing on is five witnesses testifying versus one and when I say five witnesses, I mean five other women that were testifying as the acts that took place.
Female Anchor: Prior bad acts …
Enrique Latoison: Prior bad acts.
Female Anchor: You had five in the second trial.
Enrique Latoison: Absolutely.
Female Anchor: Whereas the same judge only said well, only one person can come forward and testify in the first trial.
Enrique Latoison: Yes, and the judge never actually gave a decision on why he did that. That was a smart move on the judge’s part. He’s using his discretion at that time to say, “We’re going to go for one. We’re going to go to five now.” But since he never actually said why, that is the major appeal issue that they’re using.
Female Anchor: There are other differences between the first trial and the second trial. Not only how many more women were allowed to testify the second time around but they let in – the judge let in the deposition from the civil lawsuit.
So Cosby sat for a deposition when Andrew Constand pursued a civil case against him when originally her case was not going to be tried by the Montgomery County district attorney’s office back in 2005 and that deposition, he talked about giving Quaaludes to women. His words seem to be damning so to speak and hurtful in terms of his defense.
Allison Borgatti: If the evidence suggests that in the past you did something that was characteristic of the crime in this particular case, which was drugging and providing alcohol to a woman and then engaging in sexual activity, that would tend to prove that you committed the crime in this case. That is what he said in his deposition.
It is an admission by the client. It is an admission by Cosby. It’s just as much an admission as if he was speaking to the police and gave a statement and in terms of it being overturned on appeal, it’s my opinion that it will be difficult.
They need to find that the trial judge abused his discretion, which is the highest standard. They need to find that “but” for that testimony being allowed, “but” for these five women testifying in addition to Andrea Constand. They wouldn’t have been able to achieve a conviction.
Enrique Latoison: You bring up a very important point. We’re talking about him testifying in this deposition. Now we got to remember how did he end up testifying in this deposition and these are one of the issues they are bringing up on appeal is they’re saying that Mr. Castor who was the district attorney at this time …
Female Anchor: Bruce Castor of Montgomery County.
Enrique Latoison: Yes. Promised him he was not going to be charged and not only promised him – Mr. Cosby wasn’t going to be charged but he said he promised him that so that the civil case could move forward with Ms. Constand.
So that’s a very interesting point of law here and I’m very interested to see how this plays out because this wasn’t an assistant district attorney or a low level district attorney that made this promise to Mr. Cosby. This was the district attorney.
So if the district attorney promised you what you took to be as immunity from prosecution, so that you would go ahead and open yourself up to cross-examination, the things that –
Female Anchor: In a civil lawsuit.
Enrique Latoison: In a civil lawsuit. The things that you guys are just talking about, how much he paid her, the things she said, the things that were used against him. You have to wonder, is that allowed? Is that something that should be allowed? Should the district attorney be allowed to basically put you in a position where you let your guard down to give up your Fifth Amendment right, to testify in a civil case, then turn around and be prosecuted approximately 12 years – well, longer than 12 years but that’s another issue on appeal later and have that used against you by saying that you testified under oath.
Allison Borgatti: I can basically say that I never entered into any type of agreement that wasn’t in writing and wasn’t brought to the attention of a judge.
Female Anchor: When you were a prosecutor in Philadelphia.
Allison Borgatti: Correct. I mean to make an oral agreement, especially an oral agreement that Mr. Cosby relied on such that he gave a statement incriminating himself and essentially acknowledging committing a crime, it is definitely an issue of first impression that they are considering for the appeal.
I can say though that there would be no consideration whatsoever on behalf of Mr. Cosby to enter into that, that Mr. Castor should have put this in writing.
Female Anchor: We will have to see how it plays out. We appreciate your insight Enrique L1 Latoison and Allison Borgatti. Thanks so much for coming in.
Enrique Latoison: Thank you.
Allison Borgatti: Thanks for having us.
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[End of transcript]
Contact Enrique Latoison
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