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Extracted Text (OCR)
Case 1:20-cr-00330-PAE Document 310-1 Filed 07/02/21 Page 23 of 80
less than flattering light,” as a threat to Ms. Constand and her attorneys
should they attack his office. In a 2016 Philadelphia Inquirer article, in
reference to this same sentence, Castor stated, “I put in there that if any
evidence surfaced that was admissible | would revisit the issue. And
evidently, that is what the D.A. is doing.” He testified that he remembered
making that statement but that it referred to the possibility of a prosecution
based on other victims in Montgomery County or perjury.
He testified that the press release was intended for three audiences, the
media, the greater legal community, and the litigants. He testified about
what meaning he hoped that each audience would glean from the press
release. He did not intend for any of the three groups to understand the
entirety of what he meant. The media was to understand only that [Cosby]
would not be arrested. Lawyers would parse every word and understand
that he was saying there was enough evidence to arrest [Cosby] but that
Mr. Castor thought the evidence was not credible or admissible. The third
audience was the litigants, and they were to understand that they did not
want to damage the civil case. He then stated that the litigants would
understand the entirety of the press release, the legal community most of it
and the press little of it.
Mr. Castor testified that in November of 2014 he was contacted by the
media as a result of a joke a comedian made about [Cosby]. Again, in the
summer of 2015 after the civil depositions were released, media
approached Mr. Castor. He testified that he told every reporter that he
spoke to in this time frame that the reason he had declined the charges was
to strip Mr. Cosby of his Fifth Amendment privilege. He testified that he did
not learn the investigation had been reopened until he read in the paper that
[Cosby] was arrested in December 2015, but there was media speculation
in September 2015 that an arrest might be imminent.
On September 23, 2015, apparently in response to this media speculation,
unprompted and unsolicited, Mr. Castor sent an email to then District
Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman. His email indicated, in pertinent part,
I’m writing you just in case you might have forgotten what we
did with Cosby back in 2005. .. Once we decided that the
chances of prevailing in a criminal case were too remote to
make an arrest, | concluded that the best way to achieve
justice was to create an atmosphere where [Constand] would
have the best chance of prevailing in a civil suit against Cosby.
With the agreement of [Attorney Phillips] and [Constand’s]
lawyer, | wrote the attached [press release] as the ONLY
comment | would make while the civil case was pending.
Again, with the agreement of the defense lawyer and
[Constand’s] lawyers, | intentionally and specifically bound the
Commonwealth that there would be no state prosecution of
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DOJ-OGR-00004835
Document Details
| Filename | DOJ-OGR-00004835.jpg |
| File Size | 974.7 KB |
| OCR Confidence | 95.2% |
| Has Readable Text | Yes |
| Text Length | 2,992 characters |
| Indexed | 2026-02-03 16:53:32.274425 |