NORRISTOWN, Pa. — The sexual assault case against Bill Cosby can proceed, a judge ruled Wednesday, saying that prosecutors are not bound by a predecessor’s decision 11 years ago to not prosecute Cosby in the case of a young Temple University staff member who said the entertainer had drugged and molested her at his suburban Philadelphia home.

“I find no basis to grant the relief request,’’ Judge Steven T. O’Neill said from the bench of the Montgomery County Courthouse after a second day of testimony in the case.

Cosby’s lawyers had sought to have the charges dismissed, arguing during the pretrial hearing that then-Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce L. Castor Jr. had made a binding decision in 2005 never to prosecute Cosby.

“A promise of a prosecutor, even an oral promise, is absolutely 100 percent enforceable,’’ Christopher Tayback, one of Cosby’s lawyers, told O’Neill.

In testimony Tuesday, Castor had said he too viewed his decision as binding, but the judge disagreed. Although he did not elaborate on his decision, the judge appeared to side with prosecutors who argued that the former district attorney had not been authorized to make such a sweeping edict.

“There is no legal authority allowing a district attorney unilaterally to confer transactional immunity,’’ the current district attorney, Kevin R. Steele, told the court Wednesday.

After the ruling, Cosby sat in his chair motionless, looking ahead and stroking his neck.

New York Times