Bill Cosby

PHILADELPHIA — A Pennsylvania appeals court has rejected Bill Cosby’s attempt to throw out his criminal case because of what he called a decade-old deal not to prosecute him.

The mid-level state Superior Court ruled Monday that the criminal sex-assault case against Cosby can proceed, prompting the district attorney to press for a preliminary hearing date.

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.

In the lengthy deposition, the long-married Cosby acknowledged a series of affairs and said he had gotten Quaaludes to give to women he hoped to seduce.

Cosby has not yet entered a plea in the criminal case, and remains free on $1 million bail posted after his Dec. 30 arrest.

“We ... look forward to the court setting a date so we can present our case,” Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele said in a statement.