A Pennsylvania appeals court thinks Bill Cosby's a really funny guy, and laughed out of court his argument that he couldn't be prosecuted in a sexual assault case. Cosby had claimed he was immune because a prosecutor promised not to charge him if he'd give a deposition in a civil case against him, which Cosby ultimately settled.

Cosby, 78, is facing trial over a 2004 encounter at his home with a then Temple University employee who says she was drugged and molested by the comedian. Cosby says they engaged in consensual sex acts.

Former prosecutor Bruce Castor has said he promised he would never prosecute Cosby and urged him to testify in the woman’s 2005 civil lawsuit. The release of that testimony last year led a new prosecutor to arrest him.

[wonkbar]a href="http://wonkette.com/590437/bill-cosby-i-put-the-rape-drugs-in-the-women"[/wonkbar]But... but he promised! The deposition in that case was where Cosby admitted to buying Quaaludes to help him sex ladies, but always consensually, he insisted, because even though he was a verbally gifted comedy guy, he also apparently has no idea what words mean. He also acknowledged a long history of extramarital affairs, again, every single one of them consensual.

Cosby has countersued the woman who's accusing him in the Pennsylvania criminal case, accusing her of

breach of contract for talking to police who reopened the case last year, given the confidential settlement of the lawsuit she filed against him after Castor turned down the case.

Last fall, Castor testified in Cosby's defense, saying he'd made a deal that Cosby would never be prosecuted. Castor was also running for to be elected again as Montgomery County district attorney, but was defeated by Kevin Steele, who brought the new charges against Cosby. You may now all say "neener neener" at Mr. Cosby.

Steele is now requesting a preliminary hearing date from the court. Cosby's attorneys are considering a further appeal to the state supreme court if it can drag out the process longer -- it's unclear whether such an appeal would actually delay prosecution.

So here are the relevant gross details, which we'll leave to The Guardian:

Cosby acknowledged in the deposition that he gave the Temple ex-employee, Andrea Constand, the cold and allergy medicine Benadryl before engaging in sex acts with her at his home near Philadelphia. He calls the encounter consensual.

Constand, who had sought career advice from Cosby, left her job with the Temple women’s basketball team that spring. She returned home to Toronto and began training to become a massage therapist.

A year later, she contacted police to report the alleged sexual assault. Thirteen other women came forward by the time she settled her lawsuit in 2006 to say that Cosby had also molested them. Cosby in the deposition described a long history of womanizing, including extramarital affairs with several of the accusers. However, he said he never assaulted anyone or gave them drugs unknowingly.

Constand's case is one of the only accusations against Cosby for which the statute of limitations has not run out, and the only one to result in criminal charges. We would like to think maybe this latest appeals court ruling means the gross old pervert will actually go to trial and jail, but he has a nasty habit of escaping the consequences of his actions, like still having a career even after the 1987 release of Leonard Part 6.

[Guardian]