New Pennsylvania AG Was Prosecutor Who Didn’t Charge Cosby

Bruce L. Castor Jr., 54, took the oath privately Wednesday as the state’s top law enforcement official, an office spokesman said.

He succeeds Kathleen Kane, a Democrat who resigned following her conviction on charges she abused the powers of her office by leaking secret grand jury information to smear a rival and then lied under oath to cover it up. Castor will serve out the five months left of Kane’s term.

Speaking to reporters Wednesday as she entered the agency’s offices near her home in Scranton, Kane called her last day in office bittersweet and said she had no regrets, but declined to discuss her criminal case.

When Kane is sentenced Oct. 24, she faces prison time. In the meantime, she cannot practice private law after the suspension of her law license.

“I don’t know what’s next, but I do know somebody has told me that your future is always brighter than your past,” Kane said.

Castor, a Republican, served two terms as the district attorney in Montgomery County, in suburban Philadelphia, before becoming a county commissioner. He ran for attorney general in 2004, losing in an expensive and hotly contested party primary to Tom Corbett, who later went on to become governor.

Last fall, Castor made an unsuccessful bid to return as the county’s top prosecutor in a race in which he was criticized by his opponent for not pursuing charges against Cosby in 2005.

The district attorney-elect ended up filing a felony sex assault charge against Cosby, the married comic once known as “America’s Dad” for his portrayal of Dr. Cliff Huxtable on his top-ranked 1980s TV show. Cosby has denied any wrongdoing.

Castor emerged as a key witness at a hearing in February at which Cosby’s lawyers tried to have the comedian’s case thrown out. He testified he had promised Cosby that Cosby would never be charged over a former Temple University employee’s allegation that he molested her at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004. But a judge rejected his claim after prosecutors cited inconsistencies in Castor’s accounts and challenged his credibility.

“I thought making Mr. Cosby pay money was the best I was going to be able to set the stage for,” Castor testified, noting that the woman who brought the complaint could instead pursue a civil lawsuit, which she did.

Not long after that testimony, Kane tapped Castor as her second-in-command.

At a news conference Tuesday, Castor said he believed he was the right person to take over from Kane, following two years of turmoil in the office.

“I doubt that there’s anybody in all of Pennsylvania that has more experience and brings more knowledge to the game than me, which is I think why I was sought out in the first place,” Castor said.

Castor has not received any pledges of support from Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf or top lawmakers. The governor has the authority to appoint Kane’s replacement, with two-thirds approval of the Republican-controlled Senate, until a successor picked in the November election is sworn in Jan. 17. But Wolf’s office said no decision had been made about whether to nominate a placeholder.