![\"judge\"](\"https:\/\/www.eldigitaldeasturias.com\/noticias\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/judge-1587300_640-360x270.jpg\")
New York (tca\/dpa) – Bill Cosby celebrated his 84th birthday as a free man Monday – a day after Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele doubled down on his position that the comedian belongs back in Pennsylvania prison.<\/p>\nNew York (tca\/dpa) – Bill Cosby celebrated his 84th birthday as a free man Monday – a day after Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele doubled down on his position that the comedian belongs back in Pennsylvania prison.<\/p>\n
\u00abOn my Birthday – I wholeheartedly thank you for your support, thank you for fighting for my freedom and thank you for staying grounded and on the case,\u00bb Cosby said in a statement to supporters.<\/p>\n
In his own statement Sunday, Steele vehemently defended his decision to prosecute Cosby for his alleged 2004 sexual assault of former Temple University staffer Andrea Constand.<\/p>\n
A jury convicted Cosby of aggravated indecent assault in 2018, but the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned the conviction two weeks ago, saying the actor\u2019s due process rights were violated because Steele\u2019s predecessor declined to bring charges under a supposed scheme to secure Cosby\u2019s deposition testimony for Constand\u2019s civil lawsuit.<\/p>\n
Cosby was released from prison within hours of the June 30 ruling.<\/p>\n
Steele said he decided to weigh in again Sunday to address \u00aba tremendous amount of misinformation about what actually took place in this criminal prosecution.\u00bb<\/p>\n
Earlier in the weekend, WHTM-TV aired an interview with Pennsylvania Supreme Court Chief Justice Max Baer in which the judge said the court didn\u2019t exonerate Cosby, rather it found that DA Steele \u00abbroke the rules\u00bb by ignoring an \u00abimmunity\u00bb deal.<\/p>\n
\u00abWe certainly didn\u2019t find Bill Cosby not guilty or find him innocent. What we found was what the state did was inappropriate,\u00bb Chief Justice Baer said.<\/p>\n
\u00abTo be very clear, prosecutors in this case did not believe there was an agreement not to prosecute or immunity for the defendant at the time we moved forward on the case, and we do not believe it now,\u00bb Steele shot back Sunday night, mentioning Baer by name.<\/p>\n
\u00abIf we had believed there was an agreement or immunity, we would not have moved forward in our attempt to bring Cosby to justice,\u00bb he said.<\/p>\n
Steele said his predecessor, former DA Bruce Castor, declined prosecution back in 2005 with a caveat in his own press release that read, \u00abDistrict Attorney Castor cautions all parties to this matter that he will reconsider this decision should the need arise.\u00bb<\/p>\n
Steele said no immunity agreement was ever \u00abput on the record before or during the contentious civil deposition of Cosby\u00bb that was later used against him at the criminal trial.<\/p>\n
He said the \u00aballeged agreement\u00bb only surfaced years later through an email Castor sent to the DA\u2019s office that allegedly was \u00abblind copied to (Cosby\u2019s) defense counsel\u00bb amid a re-investigation of the case.<\/p>\n
According to Steele, an \u00abextensive investigation\u00bb by his office \u00abfound no credible evidence that Castor had given Cosby immunity.\u00bb<\/p>\n
Steele said he was still considering his options Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u00abAs we examine if any further review is available to us in this case, know that those working in the Montgomery County District Attorney\u2019s Office will continue to follow the evidence wherever and to whomever it leads,\u00bb he wrote. \u00abWe will continue to follow the law as we did in this case.\u00bb<\/p>\n
Nancy Dillon, New York Daily News<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" New York (tca\/dpa) – Bill Cosby celebrated his 84th birthday as a free man Monday – a day after Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele doubled down on his position that the comedian belongs back in Pennsylvania prison. \u00abOn my Birthday – I wholeheartedly thank you for your support, thank you for fighting for my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1081459,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1095241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-actualidad"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t