The judge in Bill Cosby's sexual assault retrial has given his legal defence a huge boost, ruling his lawyers can call a witness who says the accuser talked about framing a celebrity before she went to police in 2005 with allegations about the comedian.
Judge Steven O'Neill also helped the defence case by ruling that jurors can hear how much Cosby paid accuser Andrea Constand in a 2006 civil settlement.
Mr O'Neill ruled that Marguerite Jackson can take the witness stand after he blocked her from giving evidence at the first trial, which ended in a hung jury, saying her account would be hearsay.
Ms Jackson's evidence is crucial to a defence plan to portray Ms Constand as a greedy liar.
Ms Constand's lawyer has said Ms Jackson is not telling the truth.
Ms Jackson's evidence is crucial to a defence plan to portray Ms Constand as a greedy liar
The judge issued one caveat to the ruling, saying he could revisit his decision after Ms Constand's evidence.
Mr O'Neill also hinted during a pretrial hearing last week that he could keep jurors from hearing Cosby's prior evidence in a deposition about giving quaaludes to women before sex. He said he will not rule on that until it is brought up at the retrial.
Tuesday's rulings came ahead of the second day of jury selection in suburban Philadelphia. Six more jurors were chosen on Tuesday, bringing the total number seated to seven.
All of the jurors seated on Tuesday say they have read media reports about Cosby's case but have not formed an opinion about his guilt or innocence and can serve as fair and impartial jurors.
Nearly everyone else in the initial jury pool of 120 suburban Philadelphia residents indicated they knew about the charges against Cosby, including the two women picked on Tuesday, and scores of potential jurors were sent home because they said they had already formed an opinion about the former TV star's guilt or innocence.
That left just 27 people invited back for individual questioning Tuesday as prosecutors and Cosby's lawyers worked to fill out the panel of 12 jurors and six alternates.
A second large group of potential jurors was also brought in Tuesday, in case the sides ran out of jurors from the first group.
Cosby is charged with drugging and sexually molesting Ms Constand, a Temple University women's basketball administrator, at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004. He says the encounter was consensual.
Last year's trial was mostly a he-said-she-said. For the retrial, Mr O'Neill has ruled jurors can hear from five additional accusers, giving prosecutors a chance to portray Cosby, the former TV star once revered as America's Dad for his family sitcom The Cosby Show, as a serial predator.
Ms Constand has given permission to be identified in reports.