Image copyright AP Image caption Mr Cosby (R) at Wednesday's hearing

A judge in Pennsylvania has set a trial date for Bill Cosby, who is accused of sexually assaulting a woman at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004.

Former Temple University employee Andrea Constand alleges the 79-year-old entertainer drugged and molested her.

The trial is tentatively set to begin on 5 June next year near Mr Cosby's home.

At least 50 women have accused Mr Cosby of sexual assault, and prosecutors want 13 of them to testify.

The former star of The Cosby Show faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

A lawyer for Mr Cosby welcomed the trial date, saying: "The time has come to shine a spotlight on the trampling of Mr Cosby's civil rights."

Once fondly known as America's Dad, Mr Cosby was the first African-American to host a primetime television programme.

Although many women have accused him of rape, he is only facing charges in this one case due to statutes of limitations.

Image copyright AP Image caption Andrea Constand, 43, says she was assaulted by Mr Cosby in 2004

Thirteen of his accusers may be allowed by the judge to take the stand because the state of Pennsylvania allows witnesses to give evidence of past acts that might display a "common scheme, plan, or design".

Prosecuting lawyers say these women could demonstrate Mr Cosby shows a pattern of behaviour that is consistent with Ms Constand's accusations.

In 2004 Ms Constand was 31 when she visited Mr Cosby's home seeking career advice after befriending him through Temple University, where he served on the board of trustees.

She said Mr Cosby gave her three blue pills which made her legs feel "like jelly" and that he then began to touch her inappropriately.

"I told him, 'I can't talk, Mr Cosby.' I started to panic," she said in a criminal complaint in December last year.

Mr Cosby has maintained all of his sexual encounters with women were consensual, and that Ms Constand never asked him to stop.

In 2006 Mr Cosby settled with Ms Constand after providing an undisclosed cash sum to her.

A criminal case opened this year following the election of a new county prosecutor who had made it a campaign promise to bring charges against the comedian.</s>Bill Cosby's defense team will have a new look when the actor returns to court Tuesday for a hearing in his sexual assault case.

Cosby has streamlined his legal team as the felony case heads to trial, and has dropped his media handler, Washington lawyer Monique Pressley.

Cosby’s defense team will push Tuesday to keep key evidence out of the case. They hope to suppress several days of testimony Cosby gave in the accuser's civil lawsuit a decade ago. Cosby acknowledged giving Andrea Constand several pills before what he calls a consensual sexual encounter. She later said she was in and out of consciousness.

"I don't hear her say anything. And I don't feel her say anything. And so I continue and I go into the area that is somewhere between permission and rejection. I am not stopped," Cosby testified in the 2005 lawsuit.

Veteran Philadelphia defense lawyer Brian McMonagle is expected to lead the courtroom fight as the case moves forward. The judge in the suburban Philadelphia case could set a trial date Tuesday.

Cosby has also replaced one top-tier Los Angeles law firm with another on his defense team, the second such switch in about a year. Angela Agrusa of Liner LLP also will handle the civil defamation suits filed in several states by accusers who say they were defamed when Cosby or his agents denied their accounts.

Cosby had countersued some of them.

But he has since abandoned that strategy in Philadelphia, where he dropped the lawsuit filed against Constand, her lawyers and her mother. Cosby had accused them of violating the confidentiality of their 2006 settlement, in part by cooperating with police last year.

The defense also hopes to suppress a secretly recorded 2005 phone call Cosby had with Gianna Constand, when he described his sexual encounter with her daughter.

Dist. Atty. Kevin Steele will fight to use both the phone call and his deposition at trial.

Cosby has so far lost his efforts to have the charges thrown out.

And so the long-beloved comedian known as "America's Dad" for his top-rated show on family life that ran from 1984 to 1992 finds himself spending his time and fortune in his waning days in a Pennsylvania courtroom. The women who accuse him of similar misconduct say the charges were a long time coming.

Cosby's defenders instead suggest he is a wealthy target for the many women he met during five decades as an A-list celebrity.

"None of us will ever want to be in the position of attacking a victim. But the question should be asked — who is the victim?" his wife, Camille, asked as more accusers came forward in 2014.

Bill Cosby's accuser does not have to testify before trial, judge rules</s>Bill Cosby returned to a suburban Pennsylvania courtroom laughing as he entered the court with his streamlined defense team Tuesday for a hearing in his sexual assault case.

The 79-year-old arrived to the Montgomery County Courthouse with a wide smile on his face as he was pictured getting out of a black SUV with assistance from his legal team.

Sporting a light blue seersucker jacket, Cosby held onto an aide's arm as supporters cheered for him from the sidewalks as he entered the Montgomery County Courthouse.

Cosby dropped his media handler, Washington lawyer Monique Pressley, ahead of the hearing, where a judge could set a trial date.

The defense also will push on Tuesday to keep key evidence out of the case.

They hope to suppress several days of testimony Cosby gave in the accuser's lawsuit a decade ago.

Cosby acknowledged giving Andrea Constand several pills before what he calls a consensual sexual encounter. She later said she was in and out of consciousness.

'I don't hear her say anything. And I don't feel her say anything. And so I continue and I go into the area that is somewhere between permission and rejection. I am not stopped,' Cosby testified in the 2005 lawsuit.

Veteran Philadelphia defense lawyer Brian McMonagle is expected to lead the courtroom fight as the case moves forward.

Cosby also replaced one top-tier Los Angeles law firm with another on his defense team, the second such switch in about a year.

Angela Agrusa of Liner LLP also will handle the defamation lawsuits filed in several states by women who say they were defamed when Cosby or his agents denied their accounts.

Cosby had countersued some of them.

But he has since abandoned that strategy in Philadelphia, where he dropped the lawsuit filed against Constand, her lawyers and her mother.

Cosby had accused them of violating the confidentiality of their 2006 settlement, in part by cooperating with police last year.

The defense also hopes to suppress a secretly recorded 2005 phone call Cosby had with Gianna Constand, when he described his sexual encounter with her daughter.

District Attorney Kevin Steele will fight to use both the phone call and his deposition at trial.

Cosby has so far lost his efforts to have the charges thrown out.

And so the once-beloved comedian known as 'America's Dad' for his top-rated show on family life that ran from 1984 to 1992 finds himself spending his time and fortune in his waning days in a Pennsylvania courtroom.

The women who accuse him of similar misconduct say the charges were a long time coming.

Cosby's defenders instead suggest he is a wealthy target for the many women he met during five decades as an A-list celebrity.

'None of us will ever want to be in the position of attacking a victim. But the question should be asked — who is the victim?' his wife, Camille, asked as more accusers came forward in 2014.</s>Comedian Bill Cosby is scheduled to return to a Pennsylvania state court on Tuesday, two months after a judge rejected his latest bid to have criminal sexual assault charges dismissed.

The 79-year-old entertainer is accused of drugging and then assaulting Andrea Constand, a former basketball coach at his alma mater Temple University, at his home in 2004.

Cosby is facing similar allegations from about 60 women stretching back decades, though the Constand case is the only one to result in criminal charges, mostly because the other alleged attacks are too old for prosecution.

The former star of the hit 1980s TV series “The Cosby Show,” who built a long career on family-friendly comedy, has denied assaulting anyone and portrayed his sexual relationships with the women, including Constand, as consensual.

The hearing is expected to focus on scheduling matters. A trial date has not yet been set. Cosby, who is free on $1 million bail, could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

Montgomery County Judge Steven O’Neill in July rejected Cosby’s claim that his rights were violated at a May preliminary hearing because prosecutors declined to put Constand on the stand.

Cosby’s legal team on Tuesday will not include Monique Pressley, a Washington-based attorney who had become the public face of his defense through frequent appearances in the media on his behalf. Pressley has left the case, according to court filings.

Cosby’s lawyers are seeking to prevent prosecutors from using a 2005 deposition taken during Constand’s civil lawsuit as evidence against him at trial. Cosby acknowledged in the deposition that he had given Quaaludes to various women with whom he had consensual sexual encounters, though he also denied assaulting Constand.</s>Disgraced US megastar Bill Cosby will stand trial June 5, 2017 for allegedly sexually assaulting a woman at his Philadelphia home more than a decade ago, a judge ruled Tuesday.

The pioneering black comedian faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted. He had returned to court on Tuesday in Pennsylvania as part of multiple attempts to avoid standing trial for the alleged 2004 assault.

But Judge Steven O’Neill set the June trial date regardless, and said proceedings could begin earlier if schedules permit.

Up to 13 other women may testify at the trial if Montgomery County prosecutor Kevin Steele gets his way, although Cosby’s legal team will likely put up fierce resistance to any such attempt.

Dressed in a pinstripe jacket and gray pants, Cosby had appeared animated and engaged in conversation with his lawyers before Tuesday’s hearing at Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, northwest of Philadelphia.

Cosby allegedly plied Andrea Constand with pills and wine, then sat her down on a couch, where the actor allegedly assaulted her in 2004. Constand, who worked for the Temple University basketball team, now lives in Canada.

Going to trial cements a brutal fall from grace for the once treasured father figure, apparent model citizen and award-winning comedian who smashed through racial barriers and delighted audiences with his gentle, self-deprecating humor.

Cosby’s legal team said Tuesday their client was “not giving up the fight for his rights” and accused a lawyer representing other alleged sexual assault victims of waging a campaign built “on racial bias and prejudice.”

“When the media repeats her accusations — with no evidence, no trial and no jury — we are moved backwards as a country and away from the America that our civil rights leaders sacrificed so much to create,” they said.

More than 50 women have publicly painted Cosby as a serial sexual predator who plied victims with sedatives and alcohol to have sex and make them unable to resist his advances over four decades.

Those allegations have seen celebrity pals and millions more malign the legend who attained his greatest fame for his role as a lovable obstetrician and family man in the hit 1980s television sitcom “The Cosby Show.”

The vast majority of the alleged abuses happened too long ago to prosecute, making the Constand case the only criminal charge brought against Cosby.

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 could 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. In the Constand case, Cosby has admitted giving her a pill but accuses her of lying about the assault.

The case was initially settled by a civil suit in 2006 but prosecutors reopened it by saying that new evidence came to light in July.

Cosby’s most famous role was as Cliff Huxtable, the affable father of an upper middle class black family in New York, in “The Cosby Show” from 1984 to 1992.

It was one of the most popular TV series of all time and jettisoned the actor into a life of fame and millions, following a humble childhood during which he was raised by a maid and a US Navy cook.

Cosby served in the Navy himself and won an athletic scholarship to Temple, before moving into standup comedy. In addition to television, he wrote books and appeared in movies.

His wife Camille has stood by his side. The couple have five children. Their son Ennis was shot dead in 1997 while changing a flat tire in California.</s>Disgraced US megastar Bill Cosby is due to stand trial for sexual assault on June 5, 2017 in what could see up to 13 other alleged victims testify against the award-winning comedian turned pariah.

Judge Steven O’Neill set the date after the 79-year-old pioneering black comedian made multiple attempts to head off the possibility of a trial stemming from one alleged incident at his Philadelphia home in 2004.

But O’Neill advised lawyers that the trial could start even earlier if schedules permit. He also said that given the defence assertion that Cosby is blind, the defendant may require special assistance in court.

Andrea Constand, who worked for the Temple University basketball team at the time, alleges that Cosby plied her with pills and wine, then sat her down on a couch at his Philadelphia home where he assaulted her.

Cosby says he gave her a pill, but insists their relations with consensual. He faces up to 10 years in prison and a $25,000 fine if convicted.

Dressed in a pinstripe jacket and gray pants, Cosby had appeared animated and engaged in conversation with his lawyers before Tuesday’s hearing at Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, northwest of Philadelphia.

But the prospective trial cements a brutal fall from grace for the once treasured father figure and apparent model citizen who smashed through racial barriers and delighted audiences with his gentle, self-deprecating humor.

In recent years, more than 50 women have publicly accused him of being a sexual predator spanning four decades, making remarkably similar allegations that he fed them sedatives and alcohol that made them unable to resist his advances.

The vast majority of the alleged abuses happened too long ago to prosecute, making the Constand case the only criminal charge brought against Cosby.

Montgomery County prosecutor Kevin Steele told the court that he wants up to 13 other alleged victims to testify at trial. The judge has yet to agree and Cosby‘s legal team will likely put up fierce resistance.

The defense vowed their client would continue “the fight for his rights” and accused a lawyer representing other alleged sexual assault victims of waging a campaign built “on racial bias and prejudice.”

“When the media repeats her accusations — with no evidence, no trial and no jury — we are moved backwards as a country and away from the America that our civil rights leaders sacrificed so much to create,” they said.

Those allegations have seen celebrity pals and millions more malign the legend who attained his greatest fame for his role as a lovable obstetrician and family man in the hit 1980s television sitcom “The Cosby Show.”

The Constand case was initially settled by a civil suit in 2006 but prosecutors reopened claiming that new evidence had come to light.

The former star posted bail at $1 million in the case last December, but has yet to enter a plea.

If he pleads guilty, Cosby could avoid the enormous publicity that will come with one of America’s most famous entertainers going on trial.

In her original deposition in January 2005, Constand said Cosby plied her with pills and wine, then sat her down on a couch, where the actor allegedly fondled her breasts, put his fingers in her vagina and put her hand on his erect penis.

Cosby‘s legal team mock Constand’s credibility, saying she chopped and changed her evidence, and omitted from the final version lying down on a bed next to the actor and later visiting his home for dinner.

Constand, who now lives in Canada, has yet to appear at any public hearing.

Cosby‘s most famous role was as Cliff Huxtable, the affable father of an upper middle class black family in New York, in “The Cosby Show” from 1984 to 1992.

It was one of the most popular TV series of all time and jettisoned the actor into a life of fame and millions, following a humble childhood during which he was raised by a maid and a US Navy cook.

Cosby served in the Navy himself and won an athletic scholarship to Temple, before moving into comedy. In addition to television, he wrote books and appeared in movies.

His wife Camille has stood by his side. The couple have five children. Their son Ennis was shot dead in 1997 while changing a flat tire in California.</s>In January 2004, Andrea Constand, then a 31-year-old staffer for the women's basketball team at Temple University -- Cosby's alma mater -- was at the comedian's Cheltenham, Pennsylvania, home when Cosby provided her medication that made her dizzy, she alleged the next year. She later woke up to find her bra undone and her clothes in disarray, she further alleged to police in her home province of Ontario, Canada, in January 2005. She was the first person to publicly allege sexual assault by Cosby. The comedian settled a civil suit with Constand that alleged 13 Jane Does had similar stories of sexual abuse. On December 30, 2015, Cosby was charged with sexual assault in relation to the 2004 accusation, Costand's attorney Dolores Troiani confirmed to CNN.

Janice Dickinson alleged she and Cosby had dinner in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, in 1982 and he gave her a glass of red wine and a pill she believed was for menstrual cramps. "The last thing I remember was Bill Cosby in a patchwork robe, dropping his robe and getting on top of me. And I remember a lot of pain," she told "Entertainment Tonight." Cosby's attorney said in a statement that Dickinson's allegation was a "fabricated lie" that contradicted what she wrote in her autobiography and what she said during a 2002 New York Observer interview.

Kristina Ruehli was a secretary for a talent agency in 1965 that had Cosby as a client. She said she was invited to a party to celebrate a taping of "Hollywood Palace." Ruehli said she and an actress were the only attendees at the party. She said she became unconscious after consuming drinks and later woke up to find Cosby attempting to force her mouth onto his pubic area. She said she pulled away to vomit and drove herself home. It was the last time she would see Cosby, she told CNN.

Linda Brown was a 21-year-old model in 1969 when, she alleges, Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted her in Canada near her hometown. She says she was introduced to the comedian by her then-manager, had dinner with Cosby and was later served a soft drink by Cosby at an apartment. "I took a sip and blacked out," Brown said at a press conference with her attorney in February. "When I awakened, I was naked in the bed beside him."

Joan Tarshis was a 19-year-old actress in 1969 when, she said, she met Cosby in Los Angeles. The two became friendly. One night after taping his sitcom, he invited her back to his bungalow and fixed her a "redeye" (a Bloody Mary topped with beer), she alleged. "The next thing I remember was coming to on his couch while being undressed," she told Hollywood Elsewhere. "I was sickened by what was happening to me and shocked that this man I had idolized was now raping me. Of course I told no one." It was the first of two similar incidents, said Tarshis, who is now a journalist and publicist.

Linda Joy Traitz said Cosby offered her a ride home while she was working as a waitress at a restaurant in Los Angeles that he co-owned in 1969. On the way, they detoured to the beach. They parked and he offered her drugs "to relax," she alleged. After refusing "he kept offering me the pills," she alleged, and it made her feel uncomfortable. She claimed he then groped her chest, pushing her down in the seat and toward the door, and tried to lie on top of her. She got out of the car and ran, she said. She added that she was "absolutely not" raped. He tried to calm her, she said, then drove her home in silence. Traitz has a criminal record in Florida and spent time in prison on a conviction for drug trafficking, according to state records. Cosby's lawyer passed on her lengthy rap sheet. Traitz spoke openly about her record to CNN.

Playboy bunny Victoria Valentino said her friend Francesca Emerson first introduced her to Cosby hoping to help her get work on his show "I Spy" in the late '60s. Valentino said after an interview in his trailer, Cosby invited her and a different friend to dinner, where they drank red wine and Cosby offered her pills to "cheer up," she said. She said she felt "stoned," slurring her words. They then went with him to what she described as a "ballers pad," an office-like space in an apartment building, with two loveseats and no working phone. Valentino said she was feeling "totally out of it" when she saw Cosby attempting to advance on her passed-out friend. She said she began reaching out to Cosby to pull him off her friend when he pushed her down, first pushing himself near her mouth, before turning her around and raping her.

Famed model Beverly Johnson alleged that Bill Cosby drugged her in the 1980s at his Manhattan brownstone, where she'd gone to rehearse lines. During the meeting, Johnson said, Cosby was "very insistent" she drink a cup of cappuccino he had made for her. "After that second sip, I knew I had been drugged," she alleged. "It was very powerful, it came on very quickly." Johnson said she then confronted and cursed at the comedian, claiming, "I wanted him to know he had drugged me." She alleged that Cosby got angry, grabbed her, took her outside and flagged down a taxi for her. Cosby's attorney didn't immediately return a CNN call for comment on Johnson's allegation, which she first made in a Vanity Fair article.

In 1970, Tamara Green was an aspiring model in her early 20s. She alleged an incident occurred during a working lunch with Cosby and others. Green told Matt Lauer of the "Today" show that at the lunch, she was suffering from the flu and Cosby "produced two capsules." She said they made her feel "great" at first, but then left her "almost literally face down on the table of this restaurant." Cosby took her to her apartment and started "groping me and kissing me and touching me and handling me and you know, taking off my clothes," Green said. Green further detailed her allegations in a defamation lawsuit against Cosby filed in December.

Judy Huth has filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court claiming sexual battery and infliction of emotional distress during an incident at the Playboy Mansion, according to court documents. The alleged sexual assault took place in 1974 when Huth was 15 years old. According to court documents, Huth and a 16-year-old friend met with Cosby and eventually went to the Playboy Mansion with him. "He then proceeded to sexually molest her by attempting to put his hand down her pants and then taking her hand in his hand and performing a sex act on himself without her consent," according to the documents. Cosby's lawyer said Huth's claims are "absolutely false" and he accused her of engaging in extortion after Cosby rejected her "outrageous demand for money in order not to make her allegations public."

P.J. Masten was a Playboy bunny in her 20s and met Cosby while working as a server at one of Playboy's establishments. He asked her to lunch one afternoon in Chicago, then later called to invite her to dinner, she told CNN. Before the dinner, attended by four other men at the Whitehall Hotel, Masten said, Cosby poured her a drink. "And the next thing I know, it was 4 o'clock in the morning," Masten said. "I woke up in a bed naked, bruised. He was lying next to me, and I slithered out of the bed, my clothes all over the floor. ... I got myself together, I went downstairs, I got in a cab and I went home." Masten recalled "hurting really bad." As to why, she alleged: "There were bruise marks all over me. I knew I was raped by him."

In a statement released through lawyer Gloria Allred's office, Helen Hayes alleged that Cosby followed her and two friends "around all day" at a summer 1973 celebrity tennis tournament in Pebble Beach, California, hosted by actor Clint Eastwood. Hayes claimed she and her friends tried to avoid Cosby, but he caught up with them in a restaurant, "approached me from behind and reached over my shoulder and grabbed my right breast." "I was stunned and angry, because he had no right to do that and I did not know why he would behave that way," Hayes said. "His behavior was like that of a predator."

Donna Motsinger, 73, one of the Jane Does in the civil suit with Constand, said she met Cosby while working in a restaurant in Sausalito, California. According to Motsinger, Cosby invited her to join him for his show and she accepted. On the way, they stopped for gas and had a drink. After becoming ill, Motsinger said Cosby gave her what she thought was an aspirin. "After that there was some conversation and laughing and stuff, but then the next thing I remember ... he's next to me, he's got his hands on me and I look up I see the lights of the city. I could see it clear as a bell in my mind right now, the lights of the city coming back and it was all blurry, kind of the lights, and I passed out again," she said.

Florida nurse Therese Serignese, 57, told ABC's "20/20" that she was a 19-year-old model visiting Las Vegas when Cosby handed her pills in a private dressing room after a performance. "Take these," Cosby told her, according to Serignese. After consuming the pills, she remembered "feeling drugged, and I was kind of leaning forward, and he was behind me having sex with me. And I -- I remember it because it was not good."

Jewel Allison was a model and aspiring actress in her late 20s when she met Cosby in the late 1980s. She said he offered to help her, inviting her to his home. When she arrived, no one else was there besides Cosby, Allison said. At one point, after taking a few sips of wine, she began to feel "out of it." "I realized that something sexual was going on, but I was unable to stop it," Allison told CNN.

Barbara Bowman was a 17-year-old model and actress who met Cosby in Denver in 1985. Bowman told Newsweek that Cosby visited her numerous times, giving her acting lessons and "flying me around to major cities to events." After she turned 18, Cosby "assaulted (me) a number of times," she said. In an incident in New York, Bowman "had one glass of wine and then I blacked out. I woke up throwing up in the toilet. ... I was wearing a white T-shirt that wasn't mine, and he was in a white robe."

Identifying herself only by a first name during a news conference with lawyer Gloria Allred, Chelan said she was a 17-year-old aspiring model who worked at the Las Vegas Hilton when her father's wife sent pictures of her to Cosby. She said Cosby arranged to meet her at the Vegas Hilton "to introduce me to someone from the Ford modeling agency." During that meeting, she said, Cosby gave her "a blue pill, which he said was an antihistamine, with a double shot of Amaretto." She alleged that Cosby lay down next to her on the bed and began touching her sexually and grunting.

Helen Gumpel, a model and actress known as Helen Selby professionally, appeared in a bit part in a late-1980s "Cosby Show" episode. A short time later, her agent got a call that Cosby wanted to meet with her. In a statement, Gumpel said that, after Cosby hugged and kissed her in front of onlookers at a New York studio, she was asked back to his dressing room. There, she found Cosby "wearing a loosely tied robe" and then -- with the robe still on -- he put "his crotch area in my face," Gumpel alleged. The comedian touched her shoulders then tried repeatedly to get Gumpel to have a drink he'd made, she said. After her refusals, Gumpel said, "Cosby turned his back to me and walked to the door. Cosby looked at me and his face clouded up, as if he was frustrated and angry, and he told me to leave."

Beth Ferrier told media outlets in 2005 that she met Cosby in Denver in the mid-'80s. He mentored her for a time, but one night, she said, he gave her a drugged cappuccino. "I woke up in my car in the parking lot with my clothes all a mess," she said. "I wondered, I still wonder, 'What did he do with me? Why was my bra unhooked?'" The two later conducted an "on-and-off consensual affair" that lasted several years, she alleged to People magazine. "He kept luring me in," Ferrier told the magazine. "I felt like I couldn't say no." At the time, Cosby's publicist told People he had no comment.</s>Prosecutors said on Tuesday they intend to call more than a dozen accusers as witnesses against comedian Bill Cosby at his sexual assault trial.

During a hearing on Tuesday, Court of Common Pleas Judge Steven O'Neill in Norristown tentatively scheduled Cosby's trial for June 5, 2017, giving both sides months to pursue what will likely be a fiercely fought series of legal battles over the scope of evidence allowed at trial.

The Montgomery County District Attorney's office asked O'Neill's permission to introduce the testimony of 13 women who claim the 78-year-old entertainer assaulted them.

The names of the women were not disclosed in court filings on Tuesday.

Cosby is charged with drugging and assaulting Andrea Constand in 2004 at his Pennsylvania home.

Approximately 60 women have accused Cosby of attacking them over several decades, though the Constand case is the only one to result in a criminal prosecution thus far.

The former star of the 1980s TV series The Cosby Show, who built a long career on family-friendly comedy, has denied assaulting anyone and has portrayed his sexual relationships with the women, including Constand, as consensual.

In general, a defendant's prior bad acts are not admissible as evidence that he or she committed a particular crime.

Prosecutors, however, are sometimes allowed to use evidence or witnesses to prove a defendant committed a crime as part of along standing pattern of behavior.

Numerous women have accused Cosby of strikingly similar sexual assaults, claiming that he plied them with alcohol and drugs before taking advantage of their altered mental state.

Judges typically weigh the value of such evidence against the possibility that it will unfairly prejudice a jury.

Cosby's lawyers, meanwhile, have made their own motions seeking to limit the evidence. They have asked O'Neill to bar the district attorney's office from introducing a telephone conversation between Cosby and Constand's mother that was secretly recorded, as well as a deposition from Constand's civil lawsuit against Cosby in which the comedian admitted giving Quaaludes to women before sexual encounters.

In addition, Brian McMonagle, the lead defense lawyer, said on Tuesday he planned to request that the trial be movedelsewhere. He suggested the pool of potential jurors in Montgomery County had been tainted because the Constand case became a major campaign issue when District Attorney KevinSteele ran for office last year.

Cosby, who is free on $1 million bail, could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison if convicted.</s>Prosecutors hoping to paint actor Bill Cosby as a serial predator at his upcoming sexual assault trial sought Tuesday to put on testimony from 13 other women who say Cosby gave them quaaludes, other drugs or alcohol before molesting them.

The criminal case against the 79-year-old entertainer involves a single 2004 encounter at his home near Philadelphia with former Temple University employee Andrea Constand. The presiding judge at a hearing Tuesday vowed to start the trial by June 5.

However, Montgomery County Judge Steven O'Neill did not immediately rule on any of the pretrial disputes over evidence, including the prosecution effort to call other women as witnesses. Under Pennsylvania law, they could be allowed to testify to show an alleged pattern of behavior, even if no charges were ever filed.

Prosecutors said they reviewed accusations made by 50 Cosby accusers and concluded that 13 said they were also drugged or intoxicated and then molested by Cosby. One woman said she declined his offer of quaaludes but accepted Champagne that she believed was spiked. She later woke up naked in a hotel room and said she had been sexually assaulted. Another said she took quaaludes from him, while a third said she believed her drink was spiked with the powerful, now-banned sedative.

The defense is expected to oppose any testimony from other accusers.

The defense will also ask to have the trial moved to another county, given that the decision over whether Cosby should be arrested became a flashpoint in last fall's election for district attorney. Cosby was arrested on Dec. 30, as incoming prosecutor Kevin Steele eyed the approaching 12-year deadline to file felony charges.

Constand told police that Cosby gave her three unmarked pills and then molested her as she drifted in and out of consciousness.

Cosby's lawyers meanwhile asked the judge Tuesday to suppress a 2005 telephone conversation recorded by Constand's mother in Toronto. Cosby had called her from California. The defense said the call violated Pennsylvania's two-party consent law on wiretaps. But prosecutors who played the tape in court argued that Cosby said he heard beeps on the call and asked if he was being taped. Gianna Constand denied it.

Cosby in the conversation described the sex act as "digital penetration" but refused to say what pills he had given her daughter. In his deposition, he later said he feared sounding like "a dirty old man" on the call.

Steele will fight to use both the phone call and Cosby's potentially damaging deposition from Constand's sexual battery lawsuit. Cosby settled the suit after four days of questioning. He acknowledged having a sexual encounter with Constand, but said it was consensual. He also admitted to a string of extramarital affairs and sexual "rendezvous," some with women in their late teens and early 20s.

Cosby was arrested in December after the investigation into the allegation Constand first brought in 2005 was reopened, following disclosure of the entertainer's deposition and a stream of new allegations by women going back decades.

Cosby looked noticeably healthier Tuesday than he has at earlier hearings, although his lawyers told the judge that he is blind. O'Neill offered whatever accommodations he might need at trial, but the defense didn't immediately ask for any.

Cosby clutched an aide's arm as he walked, but his eyes appeared less milky and he seemed more engaged and animated as he spoke with his legal team.

As O'Neill pushed for a trial date, lead defense lawyer Brian McMonagle of Philadelphia said he has other trials booked until June.

Cosby has replaced one top-tier Los Angeles law firm with another on his defense team, the second such switch in about a year.

Cosby has so far lost his efforts to have the charges thrown out.

Cosby became known as "America's Dad" for his top-rated show on family life that ran from 1984 to 1992. He had been in the limelight since the early 1960s, when the Philadelphian was tapped to star in "I Spy," becoming the rare black actor to star in a network TV show at the time.

The women who accuse him of sexual misconduct for nearly that long say the charges were a long time coming.

Cosby's defenders instead suggest he is a wealthy target for the many women he met during five decades as an A-list celebrity.

Defense lawyer Angela Agrusa told reporters after the hearing that the accusers have been "paraded" before the press by lawyer Gloria Allred and others, without their accounts of abuse being investigated.

"We have seen a barrage of new accusers claiming, 'Me too,'" Agrusa said.

Cosby spokesman Andrew Wyatt brought race into the equation, saying Allred and others have trampled on Cosby's civil rights. Many of the accusers, including Constand, are white.

"Mr. Cosby is no stranger to discrimination and racial hatred, and throughout his career Mr. Cosby has always used his voice and his celebrity to highlight the commonalities and has portrayed the differences that are not negative — no matter the race, gender and religion of a person," he said in a statement.</s>PHILADELPHIA — The shape of Bill Cosby’s felony sexual assault trial could become clearer at a hearing Tuesday when his lawyers fight to keep out key evidence, including nearly 1,000 pages of damaging testimony he gave in the accuser’s lawsuit.

Cosby, 79, is charged with drugging and molesting a woman he mentored at Temple University in 2004.

His lawyers will ask a suburban Philadelphia judge to suppress testimony from the 2005 lawsuit, when accuser Andrea Constand said she was left semi-conscious and Cosby said he was “not stopped.”

And they want to bar jurors from hearing a taped phone call between Cosby and Constand’s mother, when the long-beloved celebrity and morals champion fears he will sound like “a dirty old man with a young girl.”

The criminal charges were filed in December, months after Cosby’s testimony in the woman’s lawsuit was unsealed and a new prosecutor reopened the case.

Cosby, in the deposition, admitted to a series of extramarital affairs and described giving numerous women drugs and alcohol before what he called romantic “rendezvous.” Some were in their teens or early 20s.

Defense lawyers argue that Cosby was promised he would never be charged, so he felt free to testify in Constand’s lawsuit. However, a judge this year found he was never granted immunity.

The comedian known as America’s Dad for the top-rated “The Cosby Show” — which captured the amusing travails of fatherhood and painted a warm picture of black family life during its 1984 to 1992 run — now finds himself spending his time and fortune defending tawdry accusations. Dozens of women who accuse him of similar conduct say his arrest was a long time coming.

Cosby’s defenders instead suggest he is a wealthy target for the many women he met during five decades as an A-list celebrity.

“None of us will ever want to be in the position of attacking a victim. But the question should be asked — who is the victim?” his wife, Camille, asked as more accusers came forward in 2014.

In his deposition, Cosby said he developed a crush on Constand “probably the first time I saw her” at Temple’s arena. He was a university trustee while she managed the women’s basketball team.

When she visited his home one night in early 2004 to discuss a career change, Cosby found her stressed and gave her three unmarked pills. Constand thought it was an herbal product. Cosby later said it was Benadryl, though Constand’s lawyer doesn’t buy that.

Cosby described the sexual encounter that followed, when Constand said she was floating in and out of consciousness:

“I got her skin and … it’s just above where you can go under the pants,” he said in the deposition. “I don’t hear her say anything. And I don’t feel her say anything. And so I continue and I go into the area that is somewhere between permission and rejection. I am not stopped.”

Cosby was also asked about the phone call a year later with Constand’s mother in Toronto. Cosby said he dodged her questions because he feared he was being recorded.

“I didn’t want to talk about, ‘What did you give her?’” he said in the deposition. “And I’m apologizing because I’m thinking this is a dirty old man with a young girl. I apologized. I said to the mother it was digital penetration.”

Cosby now wants both the deposition and the tape of the phone call suppressed. District Attorney Kevin Steele will fight to use them at trial. Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge Steven O’Neill is expected to hear arguments on one or both issues Tuesday, and perhaps set a trial date. Cosby has so far lost his motions to have the charges thrown out.
A judge in Pennsylvania schedules the dates for the trial of accused U.S. comedian Bill Cosby.