D.C. Superior Court Judge Neal E. Kravitz rejected a motion by the defense Monday to dismiss charges against GW basketball player Attila Cosby on grounds the testimony of Cosby’s accuser is implausible.
The prosecution, which called its last witness, presented evidence linking Cosby to a gun before the defense called its first witness.
Joseph Anderson, a Metropolitan Police officer in the department’s mobile crime lab unit, testified that a padlock manufactured by gunmaker Sturm, Ruger and Co. was taken from Cosby’s room last summer.
Anderson said when an individual purchases a gun, the padlock comes standard and is used to lock the gun in a small briefcase.
A trigger-style lock taken from Cosby’s room was also admitted into evidence Monday. Officer Anderson said it fits virtually all trigger-style guns. The lock, which is key operated, fits around a trigger to prevent a gun from being fired.
A police search of Cosby’s Guthridge Hall room May 15, 2000 found no gun.
Cosby faces a misdemeanor weapon possession charge, in addition to eight other misdemeanor charges. D.C. law prohibits individual handgun ownership.
The mobile crime lab investigates crimes such as homicide, rape and other violent crimes.
Anderson also said the broom the prosecution alleges Cosby used to sexually assault the complainant had no visible stains of blood or bodily fluids when he collected it from the scene.
Defense attorneys called their first witness Monday afternoon by calling Dr. William Brownlee, an expert in forensic medicine, forensic pathology, general surgery and general medicine.
Brownlee said his review indicated that “to a reasonable degree of medical probability, the broom was not inserted” into the complainant.
The defense also called Walter Rowe, GW professor of forensic studies, to testify as an expert in forensic biology.
Rowe said he found no traces of bodily fluids or blood on the broom.
Cosby returns to court tomorrow, when defense attorney Billy Martin said he plans to call his final witnesses, including an MPD detective.
