“Bill Cosby made his first court appearance of the #MeToo era on Monday as defense lawyers tried without success to get his sexual assault case thrown out, then turned their attention to blocking some of the 80-year-old comedian’s dozens of accusers from testifying at his looming retrial,” the AP reports.

“Prosecutors are trying to persuade the judge to allow as many as 19 other women to take the stand, including model Janice Dickinson, as they attempt to show the comedian had a long history of drugging and attacking women,” the story reports. “They’re also trying to insulate Cosby’s accuser, Andrea Constand, from what a prosecutor called ‘inevitable attacks’ on her credibility.”

Assistant District Attorney Adrienne D. Jappe argued in court that allowing other accusers to testify would show jurors that Cosby “systematically engaged in a signature pattern of providing an intoxicant to his young female victim and then sexually assaulting her when she became incapacitated.”

The AP adds: “Cosby’s lawyers will address the issue in court Tuesday. They’ve argued in writing that some of the women’s allegations date to the 1960s and are impossible to defend against, given that some witnesses are dead, memories are faded and evidence has been lost.”