Cosby Hired Private Eye To Probe Judge In Bid To Beat Sex Rap After Radar Exposé

"Before being sentenced for a crime he did not commit, Bill Cosby filed a motion demanding that Judge O'Neill provide a full accounting of his longstanding feud with and bias against Bruce Castor, the former DA of Montgomery County," Camille said in her statement. "The motion explained that Mr. Cosby, after the feud was disclosed in an unsourced tabloid article, retained a former FBI agent to investigate the judge. The former agent discovered that there was in fact a longstanding feud between the two that dated back to a 1999 political campaign for DA.

"To prove the existence of the feud, Mr. Cosby's defense team issued subpoenas requiring the testimony of Mr. Castor and other key witnesses on September 24, the first day of Mr. Cosby's previously scheduled sentencing."

Camille explained how Judge O'Neill slammed Cosby's request. "On September 19, however, Judge O'Neill issued an order denying the request for a hearing and falsely claiming that "not once during his tenure as District Attorney was Mr. Castor, or anyone else, heard to ascribe some sort of 'grudge' or prejudice against Mr. Castor.

"The judge's self-serving order, preventing as it did the testimony of Mr. Castor, successfully kept the truth from being disclosed not only in his courtroom but also in the court of public opinion."

The shocked spouse of the convicted criminal then goes on to detail how on September 17 she hired former prosecutor Brian Perry to make possible her efforts to expose the truth. Camille reveals prosecutor Perry interviewed Bruce Castor, who signed a notarized affidavit confirming Judge O'Neill's "longstanding, deep-seated bias against him."

Relevant portions of the affidavit include:

▪1. In early 1999, Messrs. Castor and O'Neill debated each other at an event where a female Assistant District Attorney with whom Mr. O'Neill had an extramarital affair was present. At the debate, Mr. O'Neill seemed "distracted, unfocused, and nervous."

▪2. The next morning, Mr. O'Neill's campaign manager called the Montgomery Republican Party Chairman to complain that placing the female prosecutor in the front of the debate to distract Mr. O'Neill was "playing dirty politics."

▪3. Later, Mr. Castor, while leaving a political event, encountered Mr. O'Neill and his wife. Mr. O'Neill, in front of several witnesses, angrily accused Mr. Castor of "running a smear campaign and trying to ruin his marriage and life."

▪4. Mr. Castor won the Republican Party endorsement for DA, causing Mr. O'Neill to withdraw his name from consideration for the election.

▪5. Mr. Castor believes that Mr. O'Neill has never forgiven him or his political supporters for using Mr. O'Neill's marital infidelity in an alleged "smear campaign to defeat him in the election." Mr. Castor describes his relationship with Mr. O'Neill "over the next sixteen years as strained and tense."

▪6. Mr. O'Neill was appointed to the bench in 2002. From 2002 until 2008, while Mr. Castor served as DA, he does not recall ever personally appearing before Judge O'Neill, and would have assigned another prosecutor to appear before Judge O'Neill "so as to avoid being put in a position where Judge O'Neill could embarrass or humiliate me and potentially damage a prosecution."

▪7. After new DA Kevin Steele filed a criminal case against Mr. Cosby in 2015, Judge O'Neill, who was the administrative judge at the time, assigned the case to himself "because he knew that I made the decision not to prosecute Mr. Cosby in 2005 and I would be at the center of whether this case could proceed to trial."

▪8. Mr. Castor was subpoenaed as a defense witness to testify at a hearing before Judge O'Neill regarding whether the criminal case could proceed given the non-prosecution promise. During Mr. Castor's testimony, "there existed in the courtroom tremendous animosity from Judge O'Neill toward me from the moment I took the stand."

▪9. Mr. Castor believes that "by finding that a non-prosecution promise did not exist, and by finding me 'incredible,' Judge O'Neill attempted to hurt me publicly and professionally as political payback."

The judge's ruling Tuesday led Cosby's lawyers to file their appeal with the state Superior Court, the next step in trying to reverse his felony sex assault conviction.

Cosby is serving a three to 10-year state prison term after a jury this year found he drugged and molested a woman in 2004.

We pay for juicy info! Do you have a story for RadarOnline.com? Email us at tips@radaronline.com, or call us at (866) ON-RADAR (667-2327) any time, day or night.

For the biggest celebrity news stories of the day, controversies, crime, and other hot topics listen to our new podcast ‘All Rise’ below!