Preliminary hearing date set for Bill Cosby in Montgomery Co.

NORRISTOWN, Pa. -- A date has been set for a preliminary hearing in the criminal sex assault case against Bill Cosby.

The married comedian will appear May 24 in a Pennsylvania courthouse to face charges over a 2004 encounter at his home with a then-Temple University employee. The woman says she was drugged and molested. Cosby says they engaged in consensual sex acts.

Tuesday's hearing announcement comes a day after an appeals court rejected Cosby's attempt to throw out his case because of what he called a decade-old deal not to prosecute him.

A former prosecutor has said he promised to never prosecute Cosby and urged him to testify in the woman's lawsuit.

The release of that testimony last year led a new prosecutor to arrest him.