The US Supreme Court quietly announced it would not review Bill Cosby's sexual assault case, leaving him a free man.
Key points:
- Mr Cosby was released from prison in June last year
- District Attorney Kevin Steele said asking the high court to revive the case "was the right thing to do"
- A spokesperson for Mr Cosby says he remains in good health despite being legally blind
The court, without comment, declined to review a stunning decision out of Pennsylvania that released Mr Cosby from prison in June.
That hinged on the word of a former prosecutor who said he had made a secret promise to Mr Cosby's lawyers that the comedian would never be charged.
The decision ended a two-decade legal drama that shifted the cultural landscape, destroyed the groundbreaking Black actor's reputation and sent him to prison for several years late in life.
A Cosby spokesperson expressed "sincere gratitude to the justices" on behalf of Mr Cosby and his family for the announcement and said he was the victim of "a reprehensible bait and switch" by the district attorney and judge in the case.
"This is truly a victory for Mr Cosby, but it shows that cheating will never get you far in life," spokesperson Andrew Wyatt said in a statement, once again taking aim at the court officials in suburban Philadelphia, as he had throughout both criminal trials.
The 84-year-old Mr Cosby, according to Mr Wyatt, remains in good health despite being legally blind.
"Many people are calling for projects for him," and he is considering a final stand-up tour, Mr Wyatt said.
District Attorney Kevin Steele in Pennsylvania's Montgomery County said that asking the high court to revive the case "was the right thing to do," even if it was a long shot.
He thanked accuser Andrea Constand for her courage and wished her well.
Ms Constand and her lawyers, in a statement, called the decision an "unfortunate outcome for everyone, especially sexual assault survivors."
They noted that the existence of the agreement or promise was "vigorously disputed in the [court] habeas proceedings and determined by the trial judge not to exist."
Mr Cosby never signed an immunity agreement in the case and Mr Steele's predecessor, Bruce L Castor Jr, never put anything in writing or told anyone in his office about it.
He never mentioned it in public until new evidence emerged and the case was reopened a decade later.
He said he had made the deal with a Cosby lawyer who was by then deceased.
"A secret agreement that permits a wealthy defendant to buy his way out of a criminal case isn't right," Mr Steele argued in court in 2016 as he pressed to send the case to trial.
Montgomery County Judge Steven O'Neill found Castor's testimony on the point not credible and sent the case to trial.
However, the state Supreme Court later ruled that whether or not the supposed deal was ironclad, Mr Cosby thought it was when he gave eye-popping — and potentially incriminating — testimony in a lawsuit later filed by Ms Constand.
"The principle of fundamental fairness that undergirds due process of law in our criminal justice system demands that the promise be enforced," Justice David N Wecht wrote last year, ordering Mr Cosby's immediate release after nearly three years in prison.
During the 2006 deposition, a seemingly free-wheeling Mr Cosby gave long, stream-of-consciousness answers to questions from Ms Constand's lawyers.
He detailed his sexual involvement with a string of young women, a few still in their teens, over the years.
And he recalled giving several of them, including Ms Constand, alcohol or pills while he remained sober.
"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," Mr Cosby said in the deposition, describing a sexual encounter that came after he gave her three pills for stress, which she said knocked her out.
He was arrested in the Constand case on December 30, 2015, just days before the 12-year statute of limitations expired.
Mr Steele had reopened the case after The Associated Press went to federal court to unseal Mr Cosby's long-buried testimony in Ms Constand's lawsuit.
Mr Cosby, after giving four days of damaging testimony, had paid her $3.4 million to settle the case.
He went on trial in the criminal case in June 2017.
The jury could not reach a verdict.
Less than a year later — after media reports about media mogul Harvey Weinstein's sexual abuse of women galvanized the #MeToo movement — a second jury convicted Mr Cosby of drugging and molesting Ms Constand.
The AP does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they grant permission. Ms Constand, now an advocate for sexual assault survivors, has done so.
Scores of women have come forward to say Mr Cosby also sexually assaulted them, but Ms Constand's is the only one that led to an arrest.
Mr Cosby's insurer, against his wishes, settled a Massachusetts lawsuit involving seven accusers for an undisclosed amount after the 2018 conviction.
At least two other lawsuits remain pending against the actor.
Mr Castor, who said he made the deal with Mr Cosby's lawyer, later represented former President Donald Trump at his second impeachment trial, at which Mr Trump was acquitted of inciting the violent mob that stormed the US Capitol on January 6.
Mr Castor said he declined to arrest Mr Cosby in 2005 based in part on his belief that both parties "could be held in less than a flattering light".
Ms Constand later sued Mr Castor for defamation and won a settlement from him.
Mr Castor countersued Ms Constand, but the judge threw it out.
AP