Cosby Lawyers: Our Witness Says Accuser Is Lying

Bill Cosby's lawyers are accusing prosecutors of withholding and destroying evidence that could have helped him, reports the AP. Cosby's lawyers, who want his criminal sexual assault case dismissed before his April retrial, say in court papers Thursday that prosecutors only recently informed them of an interview last year with a woman who cast doubts on Andrea Constand's allegations that Cosby drugged and molested her in 2004. They also say detectives destroyed their notes from the interview. The woman, Marguerite Jackson, says Constand told her of a plan to falsely accuse a "high-profile person" so she could sue and get money, per a court affidavit.

At Cosby's first trial, resulting in a hung jury, the judge blocked Jackson's testimony, and Cosby's attorneys have asked that she be allowed to testify in the upcoming trial. The two women worked together at Temple University, and Jackson says that a TV news report about a celebrity accused of drugging and assaulting women prompted Constand to claim that something like that had happened to her, per Philly.com. She then said she wasn't actually assaulted, but added, “I could say it happened, file charges, and get money to go to school and open a business," according to the affidavit. Constand's lawyer says Jackson is lying. (More Bill Cosby stories.)