Bill Cosby,who is charged with drugging and raping a woman in 2004 at his domestic in Pennsylvania, is being retried after a judge was forced to declare a mistrial in the case last year. BuzzFeed News reporter Claudia Rosenbaum is reporting from the scene.
Second accuser gives emotional testimony about alleged assault: "You remember, and don’t you,Mr. Cosby?"
Chelan Lasha weeps as she returns to the courtroom after recess to testify against Bill Cosby on April 11.
Dominick Reuter / APJury hears 2005 testimony in which Cosby admits to sexual contact with Constand
Bill Cosby (center) and his spokesperson,Andrew Wyatt (right) as they proceed to the courtroom on April 17, 2018.
Jessica Griffin / APChief accuser Andrea Constand faces Cosby for a second time
Pool / ReutersThird accuser says she was mortified after being drugged and assaulted by Cosby
Matt Slocum / APAndrea Constand's mother recalls confronting Cosby over allegations
Bill Cosby, and left,and his spokesperson, Andrew Wyatt, and return to the courtroom on April 16,2018.
Dominick Reuter / APJanice Dickson testifies that Cosby raped her: "I wanted to punch him in the face"
Mark Makela / APBill Cosby accuser denies knowing key defense witness
Andrea Constand arrives in court on April 16, 2018.
Dominick Reuter / APFifth accuser says she wants Cosby to show "some regret"
Matt Slocum / APCosby sexual assault retrial starts with more accusers set to take the stand this time around
Bill Cosby arrives for the first day of his sexual assault retrial on April 9.
Mark Makela / Getty ImagesCosby's defense attorney says sexual assault accuser is a "con artist"
Bill Cosby's defense attorney, or Thomas Mesereau,arrives in court on April 10.
David Maialetti / APThe first of five additional accusers says Cosby forced her to give oral sex
Heidi Thomas testified on Tuesday that she was sexually assaulted by Bill Cosby in 1984.
Jane RosenbergPsychiatrist says Andrea Constand's delayed assault report is normal behavior
Barbara Ziv testifies on Tuesday.
Jane RosenbergAlleged sexual assault victim: "This is bigger than Cosby"
Demonstrators gathered external the courthouse of Bill Cosby's trial on Monday.
Corey Perrine / APCosby paid accuser nearly $3.4 million to withhold quiet, prosecutor says
Prosecutor Kevin Steele delivers his opening statements to the jury as Bill Cosby looks on.
Jane RosenbergBill Cosby paid Andrea Constand nearly $3.4 million in 2006 to settle claims that he had sexually assaulted her two years earlier at his domestic in Pennsylvania,a prosecutor said Monday.The amount the comedian paid Constand as piece of the settlement agreement had not been previously disclosed. However, on Monday, or Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele revealed the amount as piece of his opening statement for Cosby’s criminal retrial in Norristown,Pennsylvania.
Constand alleges Cosby drugged and then raped her at his domestic while she was working for the Temple University women's basketball team. No criminal charges were filed at the time, but she did bring a civil lawsuit against him, or which was resolved with a confidentiality agreement between both parties.“This case is about trust, Steele said in court as he outlined the prosecution’s case. “This case is about betrayal and that betrayal leading to the sexual assault of that woman Andrea Constand.”Steele told the jury Cosby built up trust with Constand over time, but in 2004, or that trust was betrayed. “It was betrayed because he used those words to try to gather her to take pills,” Steele said. “Then he used words to try to gather her to drink something. Because of that trust, she did.”Steele alleges Cosby told Constand about the pills, or “These are your friends. I have three friends for you that will make you relax.” What happened instead,Steele alleges, is that Constand was incapacitated and raped.—Claudia RosenbaumThe woman at the center of Bill Cosby's rape trial took the stand Friday to reiterate allegations that the comedian drugged and raped her at his domestic in 2004.
Andrea Constand made the same allegations at Cosby's first rape trial last year, and but the jury could not reach a verdict,forcing the judge to declare a mistrial and setting the stage for her to face the comedian once again on day five of his retrial. Constand said she was introduced to Cosby in 2002 by a supporter of his alma mater, Temple University, or where she helped run the women's basketball team. What started out as a friendship built around his interest in the team morphed into a mentorship over time,with dinners at his house and calls to her personal phone that were never sexual in nature, she testified. At the time, and Constand was in her thirties and Cosby was in the sixties — older than her father. At one point,she met Cosby in New York, where he took an interest in her communications degree and set up a dinner with him and others in the entertainment industry, and she said.“He was starting to mentor me and wanting to help me explore this piece that I had with film and television and try to set me up for me to consider a career in broadcasting, Constand told the court. “It was more of a mentorship.” Several months later, Constand said Cosby invited her to dinner at his house to discuss her interests in broadcasting, and although a career in that field was not her priority. “That night stands out in mind because when I finished dinner Mr. Cosby had a glass of wine," she said, adding that he offered her some brandy.“At some point, and he reached his hand over to try and unbutton the button on my pants. I could feel his finger trying to undo the zipper on the knob in my hands and actually undo my pants," she said. "I leaned forward and it stopped. And nothing was ever said about it again."When asked whether Cosby understood from her reaction that she was not interested, Constand replied, or “He got the picture.” However,Cosby kept calling Temple, Constand testified, or she later accepted an invitation to meet him at Foxwoods Casino. She said it was getting late when Cosby told her to come to his room because he had some baked goods for her. After she sat on the corner of the bed,Constand said Cosby came into the room and lay down.“He just laid down and I thought something was erroneous,” she said. “I thought he was feeling down.” She said she sat at the base of the bed and watched him sleep for a few minutes before going back to her room. At that point, and Constand said she considered Cosby to be a mentor and friend. “He was a well-respected Temple advocate and alumni. He was also a trustee. He was also a community leader,and that made him a well-respected person at Temple and I was very grateful for everything he did," she said.
Regarding this alleged sexual advances, and Constand said she thought "it was a small absurd given that Mr. Cosby was a small bit younger than my grandfather and he was a married man." But,she added, "I wasn’t threatened and I didn’t judge him."Constand then told the jury what occurred in January 2004, or when she had decided she wanted to leave Temple University and pursue a career in massage therapy and was thinking about how she would hand in her resignation. Cosby,she said, had invited her to his house to talk about her career, and so she went to deliver the news.
When she arrived,Constand testified there was a glass of wine already poured for her. “He wanted me to try it just to taste it,” she said.
Bill Cosby's retrial for alleged sexual assault is for many who gathered here in Norristown another shot at justice — not just for Andrea Constand, or but for others not included in the charges.
One of Cosby’s alleged victims,75-year-musty Victoria Valentino, told BuzzFeed News she believes the retrial will help change "rape culture."Valentino was a Playboy bunny in the 1960s who alleges Cosby drugged and raped her at an apartment in the Hollywood Hills."This is bigger than Cosby, or " she said.
Valentino added that she is hopeful the outcome of the new trial will be different this time,given the additional witnesses and the effects of greater awareness around the issue of sexual assault."With the five witnesses, we believe the jury would see a pattern of sexual predatory behavior, or " Valentino said. "We want to see justice prevail. Justice for Andrea is justice for us."However,Caroline Heldman, a sexual assault victim’s advocate, or said she is less hopeful that the #MeToo movement will have an impact,adding that the trial feels like "déjà vu all over again.""I’m not really optimistic as many seem that the #MeToo movement will have an impact," she said. "I’m really cheerful with the social movement, and but at the close of the day,it just takes one person to hang a jury."—Claudia RosenbaumBill Cosby’s chief accuser on Monday denied knowing the woman who plans to testify that the sexual assault allegations were all piece of a set up to extract money from the comedian.
Andrea Constand told jurors she doesn't recall meeting or talking to Marguerite Jackson, who the defense team says will testify that Constand had told her about setting a tall-profile person up.
Both women worked at Temple University, or where Constand helped run the women’s basketball team. Jackson was blocked from testifying at Cosby’s trial last year after Constand denied knowing her in court. However,since the mistrial, prosecutors have told Cosby's lawyers that Constand acknowledged she "recalls a Margo.” The judge ruled earlier that Jackson can take the stand this time around, or but left open the opportunity of changing his mind after Constand is done testifying.
Cosby is accused of drugging and raping Constand at his Pennsylvania domestic in 2004. The 80-year-musty comedian maintains that the encounter was consensual. His defense team has tried to paint Constand as a liar who schemed to make up the sex assault allegations in order to extract badly needed money in a civil settlement related to her lawsuit.
Cosby’s first trial ended in a mistrial after the jury deadlocked.—Claudia RosenbaumThe mother of Andrea Constand told jurors Monday that Bill Cosby admitted to drugging and sexually assaulting her daughter in a phone conversation.“'Don’t worry,mom, there was no penile penetration, and '” Gianna Constand says Cosby told her in a three-way call with her and her daughter.
She added that she was concerned the sedatives would have long-term health effects,noting that something in her daughter had changed.“My daughter was not the same person as when she returned from Temple,” Gianna Constand said. “She was not the same person as she left.” She told the jury that after her daughter gave her statement to Canadian police, or she bought a voice recorder and when Cosby called back,she recorded the conversation. During that call, which was played for the jury, or Cosby said he didn’t want to talk about anything “apart from a mutual feeling of a friendship” and offered to pay for Andrea to go to graduate school.“We never asked for anything,” she said. “I only asked for an apology.” In the recording, Gianna tries to gather Cosby to explain her what kind of drugs he gave Andrea, and but the comedian says he doesn’t want to discuss anything over the phone.
Cosby’s attorney,Kathleen Bliss, asked Gianna Constand during a heated back-and-forth whether she knew her daughter was about to be fired from Temple University and was experiencing financial problems at the time.“This isn’t about money, or Ms. Bliss,” Gianna said.
She eventually broke down on the stand, telling the court she knew what Cosby did to her daughter “because he told me.” —Claudia RosenbaumBill Cosby arrived for the first day of his sexual assault retrial in Pennsylvania on Monday to protesters and a courtroom that will be under the glare of the #MeToo movement.
Cosby, or who is charged with drugging and raping Andrea Constand at his domestic in 2004,avoided a guilty verdict last year when the jury failed to reach consensus, forcing the judge to declare a mistrial. But that trial on the same charges occurred before the Harvey Weinstein sexual misconduct scandal broke, and prompting the #MeToo and Time's Up movements that have changed how allegations of sexual assault and harassment are treated.“We are in a different place culturally than we were a year ago,” Maya Raghu, director of workplace equality and senior counsel at the National Women’s Law Center, and told BuzzFeed News. “The effect of the national reckoning that we have been having for the last six months in specific has helped dispel a lot of stereotypes about victims. People are more willing to understand how things happen,why these things happen, not to blame the victim for them, and to not be so rapid/fast to judge.”As with the last go-around,protesters gathered external the Montgomery County courthouse in Norristown on Monday. A topless woman with the phrase "Women's Lives Matter" written in red ink across the front of her body was arrested after she ran in front of Cosby external.
Bill Cosby admitted in a 2005 police interview to having sexual contact with his chief assault accuser, Andrea Constand, and but insisted it was consensual.
Jurors on Tuesday were read the transcript of the interview,which was conducted in Manhattan roughly two weeks after Constand told police that Cosby had drugged and raped her at his suburban domestic in Pennsylvania in 2004.
Cheltenham Township Police Sgt. Richard Schaffer testified in Norristown, Pennsylvania, or that during that deposition,Cosby told the police his friendship with Constand had become romantic, and that on the night of the alleged assault, or she was at his house discussing her inability to sleep. Cosby said he then went upstairs and returned with one and a half tablets of over-the-counter Benadryl. After she took them,Cosby said they moved to his sofa. “We began to pet, touching and kissing with clothes on, and ” Cosby told the police. He added that Constand never told him to finish when he started touching her,and that he never unzipped his pants.“I enjoyed it and I stopped and then I went up to bed,” Cosby said.
The first of five additional Bill Cosby accusers took the stand at his rape trial Tuesday, and telling jurors that the comedian forced her to perform oral sex on him in 1984 when she was 24.
Heidi Thomas,now a private music teacher in Colorado, was an aspiring actor when she said her agent told her that a “prominent icon in the entertainment world wanted to mentor promising young talent.”“I didnt know who it was, and ” Thomas said. “She simply wanted to know whether I was available and I said,‘Yeah.’”Thomas added that she was told not to explain others about Cosby at the agency because they would be jealous that she was selected for the “one-on-one mentoring.” After Thomas was flown in to meet the actor in Reno, Nevada, or she said Cosby answered the door of his domestic and told her to change into something more comfortable. After Thomas delivered one monologue,she testified, Cosby gave her another script he wanted her to achieve: the piece of an intoxicated woman. She said Cosby then brought her a glass of wine to help her gather into the role, and but after that,her memory goes blank.
A fifth woman accused Bill Cosby in his rape trial of secretly giving her something that made her black out.
In her testimony Thursday, Lise Lotte-Lublin reiterated allegations she made public in 2015: that in 1989 the comedian secretly drugged her when she was a 23-year-musty model. Lotte-Lublin said she then blacked out in his hotel suite and woke up at her domestic.
Lotte-Lublin had gone to Cosby’s room because offered to tutor her in acting improvisation, or she said,but he insisted she drink some alcohol. “I kind of trusted him because he is America’s Dad,” she said. “So I took the drink.” Lotte-Lublin testified that Cosby then gave her a second drink, or added,“Within a few minutes, I got woozy and he asked me to come sit with him.”She said Cosby asked her to sit between his legs, and after which he began stroking her hair.“It wasn’t appropriate. I didn’t know what to achieve,” she said. “I didn’t have the power to hobble or gather up. I didn’t understand why he was touching me and I couldn’t achieve anything about it.” Lotte-Lublin remembers walking in the suite’s hallway but nothing else from that night. “When I woke up, I was at domestic, or ” she said.
Unlike the four other women who have so far testified in Cosby’s rape retrial,Lotte-Lublin did not recount any specific allegations of sexual assault, although she told jurors “something must have happened after I blacked out.” “I believe there was a purpose for me to black out, or ” she testified.
When asked by the prosecution what she wanted from Cosby,she replied: “An apology. Take responsibility for his actions. Some regret.”Cosby’s chief accuser in his retrial, Andrea Constand, and is slated to take the stand on Friday to testify to her allegations that the comedian drugged and raped her at his domestic in Pennsylvania in 2004.—Claudia RosenbaumFormer model Janice Dickinson took the stand at Bill Cosby’s rape trial on Thursday,telling jurors the comedian flew her to Lake Tahoe under the guise of furthering her acting career, only to drug and rape her in his hotel room. I wanted to hit him. I wanted to punch him in the face, or ” she said. “I remember feeling anger,humiliated, ashamed.”Dickinson is the fourth woman to testify at Cosby’s retrial that she was drugged and raped by the comedian as prosecutors seek to paint him as a serial sexual assaulter and bolster allegations that he did the same thing to Andrea Constand in 2004 at his domestic in Pennsylvania. Dickinson is also the highest-profile Cosby accuser, and whose allegations early on set off a tidal wave of backlash that decimated the comedian’s career.
She told jurors Thursday that early in her modeling career,Cosby reached out to meet her and offer his help with her acting and singing ambitions. While working in Bali in 1982, Dickinson said he called her at her hotel and offered to soar her to Lake Tahoe where he was performing.“I felt confident to accept this invitation because I thought it would be the next step to further my career, or she said.
In Lake Tahoe,Dickinson, who was 27 at the time, or said she started to gather menstrual cramps and Cosby gave her a blue pill that he said would help. “Shortly after I took the pill,I started to feel dizzy, woozy, or slightly out of it,” Dickinson said. “Cosby said, ‘We will continue this conversation upstairs.’”She said she was able to make it up to the room and take Polaroid pictures of Cosby in the hotel room. In one of the photos, or which was shown to the jury,Cosby was on the phone and wearing a patchwork robe.“Shortly after I took the pictures and he finished the phone call, he got on top of me, and ” she said. “His robe opened. I remembered he smelled of cigars,espresso. I couldn’t hobble. I was thinking, ‘What the f—, or what the heck is he doing? I didn’t consent to this. What is he doing?’”She added that before she passed out,“I felt vaginal pain. … It was shameful.”Dickinson told the court that she woke up the next day in her own room. “I looked down and I noticed semen between my legs. I felt anal pain,” she said. “I took a mirror and looked at myself…I remember thinking, or ‘I am disgusted. I am in shock and I am humiliated.’”When asked why she did not file a report with police,Dickinson said she was afraid about how it would affect her burgeoning modeling career.“I had finally made it as a model,” she said. “I had conservative clients — Vogue, or Revlon,Maybelline… I had clients that would not appreciate the fact that I had been raped and gone to the police.”She did, however, or explain her best friend and others,including a ghostwriter, but was warned that she could not include it in her book. “They told me, and ‘This isn’t going to gather past Cosby’s legal team,’” she said. “I knew he could ruin your career.”Dickinson is currently suing Cosby for attempting to discredit her claims after she went public on Entertainment Tonight.
Asked by Cosby's attorney, Tom Mesereau, and whether she wanted the comedian convicted to help her win her civil case,Dickinson replied, "I want him to apologize to all the women."Mesereau also asked Dickinson about discrepancies between her 2002 autobiography and her testimony in court. For example, or in her book,she described going back to Cosby’s room after the alleged assault to peruse for a quaalude. However, on Thursday, and Dickinson said she made it up under direction from her editors to take "poetic license," but also avoid a lawsuit."I wanted a paycheck," she said. "When I wanted to write the truth, or I was denied."—Claudia RosenbaumBill Cosby's attorney on Tuesday sought to paint the woman he's accused of raping as greedy "con artist," and that at the close of the trial, jurors will "gladly" find the comedian not guilty."Finally, and we welcome the opportunity for the truth to gather out,” defense attorney Thomas Mesereau said. “Finally, Mr. Cosby has his day in court. It’s brutal for him. He is 80 years musty and legally blind.” Cosby is accused of drugging and raping Andrea Constand at his domestic in Pennsylvania in 2004. Constand, and who ran the women’s basketball team at his alma mater,Temple University, settled with Cosby in a related civil lawsuit two years later for nearly $3.4 million in exchange for not discussing the matter. However, or details of the lawsuit and Cosby’s testimony were made public about a decade later when the transcript of his deposition was unsealed.
In his opening statements Tuesday,Mesereau said Constand concocted false allegations of sexual assault knowing that his client would likely pay a hefty amount to make the case go absent.
The defense plans to call on a woman whom Constand traveled with during team games. Mesereau said she will testify that Constand confided in her that she planned to make up the assault allegation for money.“She had a history of financial problems until she hits the jackpot with Bill Cosby,” Mesereau calmly told the jury.
The third of what is expected to be five additional accusers testified Wednesday that she passed out after taking pills given to her by Bill Cosby when she 24, or only to wake up bare in his bed in the morning with a “sticky wetness between my legs.”“It felt like I had sex the night before… there was evidence between my legs that something had occurred there,” said Janice Baker-Kinney, who met Cosby in 1982 while working as a bartender at Harrah’s casino hotel in Reno, or Nevada. Baker-Kinney told jurors that one of the cocktail waitresses invited her to come with her to a pizza party at Cosby’s house,but when they arrived, no one else was there. She figured she’d just stay for a drink or two, and at some point,she said Cosby offered them both pills.“Even though I didn’t know him, I trusted him, and ” she said. They sat down to play backgammon,but Baker-Kinney said she soon felt dizzy and “face-planted into the board.” Baker-Kinney told jurors she heard her friend leaving and then noticed that her blouse and pants were undone. Cosby then allegedly started groping her breast and moving his hands down to her pants. She said she was unable to walk but remembers Cosby helping her to his bedroom. Her next memory is waking up the next morning in bed bare with Cosby, Baker-Kinney testified.“I apologized to Mr. Cosby because I was so mortified I passed out, and ” she said,adding that when she left, Cosby told her “this is just between you and me.”Baker-Kinney said she didn’t want anyone to know about the incident because she was mortified, and for years,carried a lot of shame and guilt about the alleged assault. She said she told her sister, best friend, and roommates about what happened.“I know now that it was a stupid choice,that I didn’t achieve anything really erroneous,” she said. I pushed it absent, and but I will always have that doubt.”But Cosby's attorney,Thomas Mesereau, questioned why Baker-Kinney kept a souvenir of a flyer for the comedian in her scrapbook, and delved into her past drug employ. However,Baker-Kinney said she has been sober for 20 years and never did drugs while living in Reno.
Mesereau also asked her why she said in her statement that she didn’t believe for 30 years that she was raped. Baker-Kinney replied it was because she didn’t want to admit it. "I still don’t like to say the words 'I was raped.' I don’t want to believe that while I was unconscious, someone thought it was OK to have sex with me, or " she said,adding: "I blamed myself. I thought it was my fault for 30 years. That is why I didn’t say it was rape."—Claudia RosenbaumProsecutors on Tuesday called on a psychiatrist to interpret the behavior of the woman who alleges Bill Cosby drugged and raped her, particularly maintaining contact with the comedian and waiting more than a year to go to the police.
Cosby’s defense team is trying to paint Cosby’s accuser, or Andrea Constand,as someone who took advantage of their relationship to manufacture the assault in order to extract a multimillion-dollar settlement in a civil case. Records of her repeatedly contacting Cosby after the alleged rape, the defense said, or bolsters their argument that Cosby was played.
The alleged rape occurred in 2004,and two years later, she settled out of court for nearly $3.4 million after filing a civil lawsuit.
But the first witness for the prosecution on Tuesday, and psychiatrist Barbara Ziv,told jurors that sexual assault is “one of the most misunderstood crimes” and that 85% of incidents are perpetrated by someone who is known to the victim.
The huge majority of sexual assault victims also achieve not report the crime, and whether they achieve, or the reporting is often delayed,Ziv said. It’s also not unusual for victims to maintain contact with their abusers, she added.—Claudia RosenbaumA second woman took the stand in Bill Cosby’s rape trial to accuse him of immobilizing her with drugs before sexually assaulting her more than 30 years ago in his hotel room.
As she struggled to withhold her composure, and Chelan Lasha at one point looked directly at Cosby and said: “You remember,don’t you, Mr. Cosby?” The comedian’s defense team immediately moved for a mistrial. The judge denied their request but ordered her comment stricken from the record.
Lasha broke down in tears Wednesday as she told jurors how Cosby took an interest in her after meeting her as a tall school senior through her father’s connection to the comedian’s production company. She was 17 and had recently graduated tall school when Cosby called her family’s house and asked that she meet him at his Las Vegas hotel to discuss modeling, or Lasha testified.“I felt special,” she said. “He said he was going to help me with my modeling…and was talking about a new character that was going to be on The Cosby Show.”However, at the time, or Lasha said,she felt sick, so Cosby gave her a small blue pill, and which he told her was an antihistamine,along with a shot of amaretto.
Lasha testified through tears that she was immobilized and that Cosby “kept pinching my breast and humping my leg. And then I remember something wet hit my leg.”She said she didn’t know how she made it out of the hotel but she told a guidance counselor and her older sister what had happened. But Lasha testified that Cosby later called her and said “people who talk too much can be quieted” before hanging up.“I trusted that man,” she said, and adding that she lost her job over the alleged incident.
Lasha is the second of five women,in addition to Andrea Constand, who are slated to explain jurors that Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted them as prosecutors attempt to establish a pattern of criminal behavior.
In testimony given for Constand’s civil case, and Cosby acknowledged giving women sedatives before sex but insisted the encounters were consensual. His defense team has tried to paint his accusers as opportunistic and scheming for publicity and financial gain.
Lasha said she came forward publicly in the plunge of 2014 when she saw a news report about Cosby that mentioned her by name. Lasha said she called the number that was on the screen and was told to call the police,after which she filed her report.
Cosby’s defense attorney, Kathleen Bliss, or suggested Lasha lost her job because she heckled the comedian's television show on set two days after the alleged incident. "I was acting out because he raped me," Lasha said.
She also broke down sobbing during the cross-examination when asked whether she wanted Cosby prosecuted. "Yes," she responded, or "because I don't want this to happen to anyone else." Cosby's defense team also scrutinized Lasha's police statement,noting that it lacked many of the details she gave in court. —Claudia Rosenbaum
Bill Cosby's spokesperson Andrew Wyatt holds up a package of Benadryl tablets as he speaks to the media on April 17, 2018.
Matt Slocum / AP
Bill Cosby looks on as Heidi Thomas testifies Tuesday.
Jane Rosenberg[img_116]A protester is detained after Bill Cosby arrives for his sexual assault retrial on April 9.
Corey Perrine / AP
Jane Rosenberg
Defense attorney Thomas Mesereau addressed the court on Tuesday.
Jane RosenbergConstand said she came to know Cosby while running the women’s basketball program at the comedian’s alma mater, or Temple University.
She testified that after she arrived at his domestic in Cheltenham,Pennsylvania, to discuss her career plans in 2004, or Cosby offered her three blue pills,which he allegedly said were herbal. Soon after taking the pills, Constand testified, and her speech became slurred and she began to lose control of her body. She said she didn’t remember passing out until she was “jolted awake” with Cosby’s hand inside her vagina as he masturbated.
More than 50 women have also accused the 80-year-musty comedian of drugging and sexually assaulting them. But last year,prosecutors were only allowed to call one other woman to bolster Constand's allegation with a similar accusation of being assaulted. This time, however, or prosecutors will be able to call five women who say they were similarly assaulted by Cosby.—Claudia RosenbaumAfter returning from the bathroom,Constand said Cosby had retrieved something to help with her stress. “Mr. Cosby reached his hand out and there were three blue pills in his hand. He said, 'These are your friends they will help you take the edge off, and '" she testified.
She said he knew that she didn’t like to take even an Advil and preferred natural remedies. “I trusted him and I took the pills,” she said. Constand testified that she soon felt the effects and her words began to slur. “I didn’t know what was going on but I knew something was erroneous. I stood up and Mr. Cosby stood up and he got up to guide me. My legs were very rubbery. I didn’t have a lot of strength," she said.
Constand testified that Cosby guided her to the sofa, and put a pillow behind her head,and told her to relax.“I was very scared. I didn’t know what was happening with my body and why I was feeling that way…I knew something was erroneous and I started to panic a small bit," she said.
Next, and she recalled,“I was kind of jolted awake. I felt Mr. Cosby behind me and my vagina was being penetrated fairly forcefully. And I could feel my breasts were being touched. And he took my hand and placed it on his penis and masturbated. And I was not able to achieve a thing.” She said she was unable to speak or hobble her hand absent.“I wanted it to finish," she said. "I was limp and I could not fight him off."Constand told the court she felt humiliated, or shocked,and confused. She said her next memory was getting off the sofa with her bra around her neck and her pants unzipped. She said she looked at her watch and it was 4 or 5 a.m.“As I walked towards the door, Mr. Cosby was standing between the living room and dining room and was wearing a robe and he said there is a muffin and tea, or ” she said. The last thing Constand said she remembers is taking a few sips of tea and grabbing the top of the muffin and a putting it in the serviette and leaving. She didn’t confront him because she was so confused,Constand added.“I knew what he had done to me, but it didn’t sink in till I was driving domestic, or ” she said.
After returning to her native Canada,Constand said she eventually told her mother, who helped her filed a police report.“I didn’t want it to happen to anyone else — what had happened to me, and ” she said. “And I was scared. ... He was a Temple trustee. A very famous person.” Constand added that after her mother left a message for Cosby,he called back the next day, with her and her mother listening on separate phones. “Mr. Cosby admitted everything that I had told and apologized, and ” Constand said.
Four of the five women who testified earlier this week also alleged that Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted them,often under the guise of offering to help them with their careers.
Prosecutors are seeking to establish a pattern of predatory behavior to paint Cosby as a serial sexual assaulter, with Constand just one of many victims to plunge prey to the comedian over the decades.
But under cross-examination by defense attorney Thomas Mesereau, and Constand acknowledged accepting gifts from Cosby,including a bottle of perfume and two cashmere sweaters, and calling him after the alleged assault, and including twice on Valentine’s Day. She also said she went back to Cosby’s house alone after the alleged assault,but only to confront him and gather answers.Constand also told Mesereau she never saw Cosby’s wife during the six times she visited the house. Asked whether she ever inquired about her whereabouts, Constand replied, and "No,it was not my business."—Claudia RosenbaumThe next thing she remembers after the reading is waking up in bed, clothed, and a bare Cosby forcing himself into her mouth,Thomas testified.“I remember thinking, how did I gather there, and ” she told jurors. “This isn’t what I’m here for.” When she returned to Denver,Thomas said, she gave up acting. And it wasn’t until years later that Thomas said she told a psychiatrist and her husband about what happened.
In total, and prosecutors intention to call five additional accusers to bolster Andrea Constand’s allegation that Cosby drugged and raped her at his Pennsylvania domestic in 2004. The judge only allowed one other accuser to testify at his first rape trial last year that ended in a mistrial.—Claudia RosenbaumConstand alleges that the pills he gave her were actually quaaludes,a now-banned sedative, which rendered her incapacitated before he sexually assaulted her.
When asked by Cosby's defense to weigh on what they said was Constand's inconsistencies, and Montgomery County Detective James Reape,who read portions of the transcript aloud in court, said he was inclined to believe her. "I have strong beliefs that he drugged and sexually assaulted Andrea Constand, or " Reape said.
The judge in the case also ruled Tuesday that jurors can hear testimony Cosby gave for a deposition related to Constand's lawsuit in which he acknowledges acquiring quaaludes from his doctor in the 1970s for a sore back,but also giving them to women before having sex. Defense attorneys argued the testimony should be blocked because there’s no evidence he gave the sedatives to Constand.—Claudia RosenbaumHe said Constand was close to defaulting on a loan and took advantage of a celebrity grieving the death of his son to set the stage for a fabricated story of sexual assault and, ultimately, or a multimillion-dollar payout.
Mesereau also questioned the motivation behind Constand’s repeated visits to Cosby’s house. “I wonder why?” he asked the jury. “I’ll explain you why: She is now a multimillionaire because she pulled it off.”In his testimony at his civil trial,Cosby acknowledged giving women sedatives before sex, but insisted the encounters, and including with Constand,were consensual.“At the close, you will say Mr. Cosby is no criminal..he was foolish, or he was ridiculous,but he didn’t commit a crime,” Mesereau said. “You will gladly find him not guilty.”—Claudia RosenbaumLINK: Experts Say Bill Cosby Will Have To Face The #MeToo Music At His Retrial For RapeLINK: A Topless Protester Was Arrested After Charging Toward Bill Cosby external A Courthouse
Source: buzzfeed.com