A judge has refused to throw out a case against comedian Bill Cosby,
paving the way for him to be tried for sexual assault.
It was decided that a former district attorney's claim that he granted
the comedian immunity from prosecution a decade ago would not stand.
There will now be a preliminary hearing on 8 March to see if prosecutors
have enough evidence to prove Cosby assaulted his accuser at his home in the
Philadelphia area in 2004.
The case was reopened last year as a result of evidence in
a deposition made by Cosby as part of a lawsuit against him brought
by his accuser.
The disgraced star of 1980s hit TV programme The Cosby Show said in his
deposition that he obtained muscle relaxant drugs to give to women he wanted to
have sex with.
He gave three of the pills he acquired to the woman who accused him of
sexual assault in the case.
The judge also denied a defence request to disqualify the prosecutor
from the case.
The comedian's lawyers have been hoping to prevent Montgomery County
District Attorney Kevin Steele acting in the trial because allegations
against Cosby were discussed in last autumn's hotly contested race for
District Attorney.