Official Statement from Mrs. Camille O.

Cosby
Addressing the Denial of Mr. Cosby’s Rights to a Fair and Impartial Trial

The right to a fair trial is universally regarded as a fundamental one, guaranteed both by the Fifth
and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution and by Article 10 of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights. In the United States, that right requires that judges be fair and
impartial.

Bill Cosby was not afforded an impartial judge and he did not receive a fair trial. Instead, my
husband was forced to go to trial before a judge, Steven T. O’Neill, who had a bitter,
longstanding feud with one of the key witnesses in the case, Bruce Castor, the former District
Attorney for Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. Mr. Castor testified under oath that when he
was D.A. in 2006, he made a binding decision that because the evidence was weak, Mr. Cosby
would never be prosecuted in this case, and that as a result of that decision, Mr. Cosby no longer
had the right to remain silent and would be required to give a deposition in a civil lawsuit.

Incredibly, Judge O’Neill refused to believe the sworn testimony of the former DA. What Judge
O’Neill failed to disclose but which has now come to light is that Judge O’Neill had a personal
feud with Mr. Castor that started before Judge O’Neill became a judge. In 1999, Judge O’Neill
and Mr. Castor ran against each other in the 1999 campaign to become D.A. At an important
debate during the campaign, Mr. Castor, knowing that Judge O’Neill, while previously separated
from his wife, had been in a romantic relationship with a female assistant D.A., ordered the
assistant to appear at the debate to visibly show support for Mr. Castor. Embarrassed in this
manner, Judge O’Neill performed poorly at the debate and withdrew from the race.

Mr. Castor went on to win the D.A. election and Judge O’Neill became a judge. In 2014, Kevin
Steele beat Mr. Castor in an election and became D.A. Mr. Steele decided to prosecute
Mr. Cosby, and Judge O’Neill was assigned to the case. Mr. Cosby filed a motion to dismiss
because of the binding promise by the then D.A. not to prosecute. At a hearing, Mr. Castor
testified under oath that the alleged victim had “ruined her credibility” with her own inconsistent
statements and that an investigation had determined that the unproven accusations from other
women were unreliable. Mr. Castor testified that as a result, he made a binding statement on
behalf of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania not to prosecute Mr. Cosby.

Judge O’Neill refused to believe this sworn testimony by his rival, the former D.A., and denied
the motion to dismiss.

The public, and Mr. Cosby, were entitled to know about Judge O’Neill’s bias before the judge
made these rulings. That this judge would hide his bias and decide that his rival, the former
D.A., could not be trusted to give truthful testimony, shows that the judge let his own personal
feelings override Mr. Cosby’s right to a fair trial. If a judge would do this in a case as high-
profile as this one, then he cannot be trusted to be a fair judge for anyone else either.
Judge O’Neill must provide a full accounting of his bias against the former D.A., and correct the
horrible injustice done to Mr. Cosby and to our system of justice.