PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A judge agreed Thursday to let five additional Bill Cosby accusers testify at his April 2 sexual assault retrial, giving prosecutors a chance to portray the man once known as "America's Dad" as a serial predator who made a sadistic habit of drugging and molesting women. 
 
 Judge Steven O'Neill said prosecutors could choose the witnesses from a list of eight women whose allegations date to 1982. Prosecutors had wanted to have as many as 19 women testify about alleged assaults over a five-decade span. 
 
 Among the women who could take the witness stand: model Janice Dickinson, who suspects Cosby drugged and raped her while she was unconscious during a 1982 trip to Lake Tahoe. 
 
 "We are reviewing the Judge's order and will be making some determinations," District Attorney Kevin Steele said. 
 
 Cosby's lawyers went to court last week to block any additional accusers from testifying, contending they were only needed because prosecutors were desperate to bolster an otherwise weak case. 
 
 They argued that jurors should only hear testimony about the alleged 2004 assault that led to the criminal charges against Cosby, not "ancient allegations" that would confuse, distract and prejudice the jury against the 80-year-old comedian. 
 
 "It just shows how desperate they are and that this is a very weak case," Cosby spokesman Andrew Wyatt said after O'Neill made his ruling. "Mr. Cosby is innocent of these charges." 
 
 Cosby has pleaded not guilty to charges he drugged and molested former Temple University women's basketball official Andrea Constand at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004. He remains free on bail. 
 
 Pennsylvania allows prosecutors to present evidence of alleged past misdeeds if they demonstrate the defendant engaged in a signature pattern of crime. 
 
 Prosecutors argue Cosby used his power and appeal as a beloved entertainer to befriend younger women and then plied them with drugs or alcohol before assaulting them. 
 
 Prosecutors tried to have 13 additional accusers testify at Cosby's first trial last year, but O'Neill limited them to just one and barred any mention of about 60 others who have come forward to accuse Cosby in recent years. 
 
 Kelly Johnson, who worked for Cosby's agent, testified Cosby knocked her out with a pill during a 1996 meeting at the Bel-Air Hotel in Los Angeles. She said she woke up to find her dress disheveled, her breasts exposed and Cosby forcing her to touch his genitals. 
 
 Cosby's first trial ended in a hung jury. 
 
 For prosecutors, having several accusers tell similar stories about Cosby would give them a chance to smooth over issues with Constand's credibility and insulate her from attacks from his lawyers, who are keen to portray her as a money-grubbing liar. 
 
 Dave Zuckerman, a former prosecutor who practices criminal defense in the Pittsburgh area, said that "might help put the case over the edge in favor of the prosecution." 
 
 "Now it becomes more than just one accuser against Bill Cosby," he said. "Now you have a pattern of multiple women." 
 
 Also Thursday, Dickinson's defamation lawsuit against Cosby was allowed to move forward after the California Supreme Court refused his appeal. Dickinson sued Cosby after he and his representatives said her allegations were false. ||||| PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Bill Cosby's lawyers filed a motion Tuesday to prevent jurors at his upcoming sex-assault trial from hearing the actor admit giving women quaaludes, money or educational funds, saying the testimony would unfairly prejudice them. 
 
 "The testimony about quaaludes and the alleged provision of money or educational funds is quintessentially the kind of evidence that causes 'unfair prejudice,'" Cosby's lawyers wrote in advance of a hearing on the issue Monday. 
 
 Cosby acknowledged in a decade-old deposition that he gave one woman quaaludes and a string of women alcohol or pills before sex. He also said that he offered some women money or an education fund. 
 
 However, Common Pleas Judge Steven O'Neill has ruled that most of them can't testify, so the defense wants his deposition testimony about them excluded as well. 
 
 Cosby, 79, is charged with drugging and molesting Andrea Constand, a then-Temple University basketball team manager, in 2004. 
 
 Dozens of other women have made similar accusations, but O'Neill will allow only one of them to testify, a woman who worked for his agent and said she was drugged and assaulted in 1996. She is not part of the deposition because she had not yet come forward. 
 
 Cosby, in the deposition, said he had gotten seven prescriptions for quaaludes in the 1970s to give women before sex. He said he did not use quaaludes or other drugs himself. The powerful sedative was banned in the U.S. in 1983, and Cosby said he no longer had any on hand when he befriended Constand 20 years later. 
 
 "Quaaludes have not been available in this country for two decades," lawyers Brian McMonagle and Angela Agrusa wrote in the filing. "Any discussion of quaaludes would only divert the jury away from its duty of weighing the evidence as to Ms. Constand, the only alleged victim." 
 
 Cosby offered Constand an educational fund in a taped phone call made days after she accused him of sexual misconduct in early 2005. Constand's mother told him they just wanted an apology. Constand then went to police, and sued Cosby when prosecutors at the time declined to press charges. A new prosecutor reopened the case in 2015 after Cosby's deposition became public and more women came forward. 
 
 The trial is set to start June 5 in Montgomery County, outside of Philadelphia. Cosby has pleaded not guilty. O'Neill has said the jury can hear the taped phone call.
– A judge agreed Thursday to let five additional Bill Cosby accusers testify at his April 2 sexual assault retrial, giving prosecutors a chance to portray the man once known as "America's Dad" as a serial predator who made a sadistic habit of drugging and molesting women. Judge Steven O'Neill said prosecutors could choose the witnesses from a list of eight women whose allegations date to 1982, the AP reports. Prosecutors had wanted to have as many as 19 women testify about alleged assaults over a five-decade span. Among the women who could take the witness stand: model Janice Dickinson, who suspects Cosby drugged and raped her while she was unconscious during a 1982 trip to Lake Tahoe. "We are reviewing the Judge's order and will be making some determinations," District Attorney Kevin Steele said. Cosby's lawyers went to court last week to block any additional accusers from testifying, contending they were only needed because prosecutors were desperate to bolster an otherwise weak case. They argued that jurors should only hear testimony about the alleged 2004 assault that led to the criminal charges against Cosby, not "ancient allegations" that would confuse, distract, and prejudice the jury against the 80-year-old comedian. Cosby has pleaded not guilty to charges he drugged and molested former Temple University women's basketball official Andrea Constand at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004. He remains free on bail. Also Thursday, Dickinson's defamation lawsuit against Cosby was allowed to move forward after the California Supreme Court refused his appeal. Dickinson sued Cosby after he and his representatives said her allegations were false.