News guide: Prosecutors can use Cosby's deposition at trial

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A suburban Philadelphia judge settled one of two key pretrial issues in Bill Cosby's sexual assault trial when he ruled on Monday that the jury could hear Cosby's damaging testimony from a decade-old civil deposition.

The 79-year-old Cosby is charged with felony sexual assault.

Cosby acknowledged a string of extramarital affairs over 50 years and said he had given young women drugs or alcohol before sexual encounters that he deemed consensual.

Prosecutors in Montgomery County, near Philadelphia, reopened accuser Andrea Constand's 2005 police complaint after the deposition became public last year.

Cosby acknowledged the 2004 sexual encounter with accuser Andrea Constand, and described putting his hand down her pants after giving her three unidentified blue pills.

I didn't want to talk about 'What did you give her?' Cosby said on the call, which was taped, because we're over the telephone and I'm not sending anything (the pill bottle) over the mail.

Defense lawyers say the 79-year-old comedian is legally blind and suffering from memory problems, rendering him unable to help them prepare for trial.

Cosby is typically led into court by an assistant, but appeared relaxed at the most recent hearing last month, joking with an aide as he left the courtroom.