Bill Cosby could get trial date at evidence hearing Tuesday

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The shape of Bill Cosby's felony sexual assault trial could become clearer at a hearing Tuesday when his lawyers fight to keep out key evidence, including nearly 1,000 pages of damaging testimony he gave in the accuser's lawsuit.

[...] they want to bar jurors from hearing a taped phone call between Cosby and Constand's mother, when the long-beloved celebrity and morals champion fears he will sound like "a dirty old man with a young girl."

The criminal charges were filed in December, months after Cosby's testimony in the woman's lawsuit was unsealed and a new prosecutor reopened the case.

Cosby, in the deposition, admitted to a series of extramarital affairs and described giving numerous women drugs and alcohol before what he called romantic "rendezvous."

Defense lawyers argue that Cosby was promised he would never be charged, so he felt free to testify in Constand's lawsuit.

The comedian known as America's Dad for the top-rated "The Cosby Show" — which captured the amusing travails of fatherhood and painted a warm picture of black family life during its 1984 to 1992 run — now finds himself spending his time and fortune defending tawdry accusations.