DOJ-OGR-00004824.pdf

--- Page 1 --- **Document Header:** * Case Number: 1:20-cr-00330-PAE * Document Number: 310-1 * Filed Date: 07/02/21 * Page Number: 12 of 80 **Text Body:** * The case could not be won and that I was going to make a public statement that we were not going to charge Mr. Cosby. * I told him that I was making it as the sovereign Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and, in my legal opinion, that meant that Mr. Cosby would not be allowed to take the Fifth Amendment in the subsequent civil suit that Andrea Constand's lawyers had told us they wanted to bring. * [Attorney] Phillips agreed with me that that is, in fact, the law of Pennsylvania and of the United States and agreed that if Cosby was subpoenaed, he would be required to testify. * But those two things were not connected one to the other. Mr. Cosby was not getting prosecuted at all ever as far as I was concerned. And my belief was that, as the Commonwealth and the representative of the sovereign, that I had the power to make such a statement and that, by doing so, as a matter of law Mr. Cosby would be unable to assert the Fifth Amendment in a civil deposition. * [Attorney] Phillips, a lawyer of vastly more experience even than me—and I had 20 years on the job by that point—agreed with my legal assessment. And he said that he would communicate that to the lawyers who were representing Mr. Cosby in the pending civil suit. * Recalling his thought process at the time, the former district attorney further emphasized that it was "absolutely" his intent to remove "for all time" the possibility of prosecution, because "the ability to take the Fifth Amendment is also for all time removed." * Consistent with his discussion with Attorney Phillips, D.A. Castor issued another press release, this time informing the public that he had decided not to prosecute Cosby. * The press release stated, in full: * Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce L. Castor, Jr. has announced that a joint investigation by his office and the Cheltenham Township Police Department into allegations against actor and comic Bill Cosby is concluded. Cosby maintains a residence in Cheltenham Township, Montgomery County. * A 31 year old female, a former employee of the Athletic Department of Temple University complained to detectives that Cosby touched her appropriately during a visit to his home in January of 2004. The woman reported the allegation to police in her native Canada on January 13, 2005. **Footer:** * [J-100-2020] - 11