Last week, Cosby filed a motion with the Pennsylvania Superior Court, which hears appeals, arguing that his efforts to challenge his conviction were being frustrated by the fact that the trial judge had yet to issue an opinion that explains his decisions during the case.
In a brief order, the Superior Court gave no explanation for its decision.
Cosby, 81, is now in a maximum-security state prison in Pennsylvania, where he is serving three to 10 years.
He was sentenced in September for drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand, in his home outside Philadelphia in 2004. He maintained his innocence and in December his lawyers filed papers with the Superior Court that challenged the way the trial judge in the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas, Steven T. O’Neill, handled parts of the case.
For example, the lawyers contend O’Neill wrongly ignored the testimony by a former district attorney who said he had promised never to prosecute Cosby and that he erred by allowing testimony from five other women who had accused Cosby of drugging and sexually assaulting them.
While the Cosby appeal process will not move forward until O’Neill issues his opinion, known as a 1925(a) Opinion, several legal experts said the seven months that have passed since Cosby’s sentencing in September are not unusually long in a case of such complexity.
In a statement, Kevin R. Steele, Montgomery County district attorney, said, “Seemingly, the Superior Court did not need a Commonwealth response to the defense’s motion, which was fraught with inaccuracies, before yet again denying the defendant’s request for bail pending appeal.”
Cosby’s spokesman, Andrew Wyatt, said in a statement that the defense had anticipated that the bail request would be denied and that the primary motive in filing it was to highlight that O’Neill had yet to produce his opinion.
“We strongly feel that our Application for Bail Relief will force this egregious judge to do the right thing, write his 1925(a) Opinion, so that Mr. Cosby can move forward with his appeal,” the statement said.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.