A Pennsylvania appeals court Monday blocked Bill Cosby's effort to have criminal sexual assault charges against him thrown out, opening the way for the case to proceed.
Court officials said they would now schedule a preliminary hearing in the criminal case, possibly as early as late next month.
Though Cosby has been sued in civil courts by several women, the Pennsylvania case is the only criminal case to arise from the many sexual assault accusations leveled against him in recent years.
The case involves a former Temple University staff member, Andrea Constand, who says the entertainer drugged and molested her at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004.
Cosby, 78, has denied all wrongdoing. Andrew Wyatt, a spokesman for Cosby, could not immediately say whether Cosby would appeal.
Kevin R. Steele, the district attorney for Montgomery County, whose office is prosecuting the case, said in a statement that the court agreed with him that Cosby had no right to appeal at this stage, and that he looked forward to putting forth his case at a preliminary hearing.
The ruling by the Superior Court of Pennsylvania came in response to a motion by Steele to quash Cosby's appeal. The court also denied Cosby's attempt to win an automatic right of appeal.
Since Cosby was charged in December, his legal team has been working to have the charges dismissed. It has argued that one of Steele's predecessors as district attorney had made a binding commitment in 2005 never to prosecute Cosby in connection with his encounter with Constand.
The district attorney at the time of the initial investigation, Bruce L. Castor Jr., said in a February hearing that he had made a pledge not to prosecute Cosby so that Cosby would testify in Constand's subsequent civil suit without fear of prosecution based on what he said.
Cosby ultimately did testify, and that suit ended in 2006 with his paying Constand a financial settlement.
But a judge who oversaw the February proceeding rejected Cosby's petition, which led to Cosby's appeal.
In denying the appeal Monday, the court did not release a written explanation, nor did it indicate whether the decision had been made by a single judge or a panel of judges.
Steele said he was "gratified" by the court's decision. "We are ready for that hearing and look forward to the court setting a date so we can present our case," he said.
Even if Cosby did appeal, his efforts would not necessarily stop a preliminary hearing from going ahead unless the higher court again suspended proceedings while Cosby made his arguments.
In addition to his criminal case, Cosby is involved in a number of separate civil cases brought by other women who say he assaulted them years ago.
But those have been slowed, with judges determining that further questioning of Cosby in these cases should be delayed while the criminal case is outstanding in Pennsylvania, citing the potential conflict Cosby might face if compelled to testify in the civil matters now.