How prosecutor's office tricked Bill Cosby into giving up his Fifth Amendment rights - only to then use his admissions to prosecute him after promising not to charge him

Bruce Castor in 2005 declined to criminally prosecute Bill Cosby
Instead he secured a civil conviction and Cosby sat for four days of deposition
Castor agreed a deal with Cosby, declining to prosecute in exchange for his cooperation in the civil case
Castor's successor as district attorney, Kevin Steele, pressed charges against Cosby in December 2015 - within a month of taking office
On Wednesday Pennsylvania's Supreme Court ruled that Steele was wrong to have gone against Castor's unwritten agreement with Cosby

Published: 01:16 BST, 1 July 2021 | Updated: 01:21 BST, 1 July 2021

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Bill Cosby was sensationally freed from prison in Pennsylvania on Wednesday after the Supreme Court ruled that the district attorney's agreement not to prosecute the entertainer should have been respected, and charges never filed.

Bruce Castor, the district attorney for Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, in 2005 was tasked with deciding whether to prosecute Cosby over allegations of sexual assault. Castor went on to represent Donald Trump earlier this year in his impeachment trial.

Andrea Constand, a Canadian basketball coach at Temple University in the state, accused Cosby of drugging and sexually assaulting her in 2004.

Bruce Castor, district attorney of Montgomery County from 2000-2008, and again in 2015, declined to prosecute Cosby in 2005

Castor decided that the case was unlikely to secure a criminal conviction, despite finding her accusations credible.

He wanted to secure her a settlement in a civil case, however.

Castor then told Cosby he would not be charged criminally for the sexual assault - later saying that he did so to prevent Cosby from pleading the Fifth Amendment in ongoing civil litigation.

Cosby under oath then admitted to drugging women he hoped to have sex with.

He admitted to giving young women quaaludes at that time 'the same as a person would say have a drink,' he said, but not without their knowledge. Cosby's accusers have since said they had no idea they had been drugged.

Over the course of four days at a Philadelphia hotel, Cosby denied he was a sexual predator who assaulted many women, but presented himself in the deposition as a playboy who used a combination of fame, feigned concern for others and sedatives in a calculated pursuit of young women.

The nearly 1,000-page transcript of the deposition was - unlike the memorandum of law in the case - never sealed. In 2015 The New York Times obtained and published it.

In November 2015, Kevin Steele, a Democrat, defeated Castor, a Republican, and took up the role of district attorney.

Within a month Steele had decided to prosecute Cosby - despite Castor's agreement.

On Wednesday the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that charging Cosby for that crime, for which he was convicted in 2018, violated his due-process rights.

Kevin Steele was elected district attorney of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, in November 2015 - a role he still holds today. Steele replaced Castor and immediately charged Cosby