THE CANADIAN TAKING ON ‘AMERICA’S DAD’
One evening, early in 2004, Andrea Constand sipped wine and took pills offered by Bill Cosby in the entertainer’s suburban Philadelphia mansion. He guided her to the sofa and as they lay there, Cosby’s hands roamed freely under the Toronto woman’s loosened brassiere then plunged into her pants. She was 30. He was 66. He was a beloved comedian, Temple University trustee, “America’s Dad.” She was a behind-the-scenes Temple employee, still unknown to the wider world. That would change. The acts on the sofa are detailed in statements given to police by Constand and Cosby. Statements sworn to long ago. So long ago that the filing of criminal charges barely made it under Pennsylvania’s 12-year statute of limitations, and now pits the word of a bigname celebrity against that of a massage therapist as to how and why they ended up on that sofa.
Constand, now living in Toronto, alleges she was drugged and sexually assaulted. Cosby claims it was a consensual makeout session.
On June 5, Cosby — an award-winning performer who amassed wealth, fame and respect for his family-friendly brand of humour — is scheduled to appear in the Montgomery County courthouse near his Elkins Park estate. Now 79 years old, blind and free on $1-million (U.S.) bail, Cosby will stand trial for the aggravated indecent assault of Constand.
The Canadian and the Comedian. Sitting across from each other for the first time in more than a decade.
But there is no funny punchline in this story, one that has played out before a global audience gripped by the he-said-she-said narratives contained within mammoth sets of online criminal court filings.
Close to 50 women have also gone public with similar accusations against Cosby — of being incapacitated and sexually assaulted — but Constand is the only woman whose allegations will be tested in criminal court.
How this case even made it to trial — a prosecutor initially rejected it — is equally riveting.
Constand complained to police in 2005, nearly a year after the alleged assault by Cosby. The accusations commanded attention but a local district attorney dismissed the complaint as too weak to merit charges.
Constand sued Cosby. They settled. Her silence was one of the terms.
So, no criminal charges. Civil suit materials sealed. Both sides tight-lipped. The matter, once bleeding salacious details through the media, seemed cauterized.
Except an extraordinary set of circumstances — including the 2015 release of a damaging sex-and-drugs deposition — have prompted prosecutors to restore Constand’s abandoned complaint about one of America’s most enduring and philanthropic stars.
At next month’s jury trial, it would appear that neither the prosecution nor the defence will mince words if thousands of pages of legal documents filed with the Montgomery County criminal court are indications of their positions.
Prosecutors argued that Cosby, dubbed “America’s Dad” for his genial Dr. Cliff Huxtable character on TV, was a serial sexual predator with a decades-long history of drugging then assaulting women.
The defence has portrayed the 44-year-old Constand, a former NCAA basketball standout, as making “shifting and inconsistent” accusations and says she swallowed pills “by her own hand” that night in Elkins Park.
None of the key players in this matter — including Constand and Cosby’s legal team — agreed to be interviewed by the Star.
Instead, details from U.S. police reports, parts of Cosby’s civil deposition, an affidavit written by detectives to support the criminal charges, legal filings, news reports, social media postings and information from independent interviews have been used to tell this story.
It’s a tale that traces the journey of Andrea Constand, and how basketball talent took the Toronto native from a high school gym in the city’s east end to a college scholarship in Arizona, to a pro hoops career in Italy, before she landed a job at top-notch Temple University in Philadelphia. Cosby — a former Temple football player — was a treasured school booster and trustee.
Constand and Cosby first crossed paths at a Temple women’s basketball game. Despite their age difference, they became good friends.
Neither would have suspected that, in time, the most intimate details of their lives would be held up to public scrutiny. Andrea Constand Long before Andy and Gianna Constand first held their infant daughter in1973, Bill Cosby’s star was shining. He’d won Emmys and Grammys and was a frequent guest on Johnny Carson’s iconic late-night talk show.
When his greatest success, The Cosby Show, debuted on network television in 1984, Constand was in grade school. Around that time, she was developing into an elite athlete who would excel at basketball.
In high school, Constand attracted interest; the six-foot sharpshooter at Albert Campbell Collegiate once scored 51points in a game. Constand helped her school win two provincial championships. She was considered an unselfish player who was a threat at both ends of the court.
“You see players who have savvy, can shoot or play defence,” her high school coach, Bryan Pardo, told the Star’s David Grossman in 1991. “She’s got it all and is the most complete player we’ve ever had.” Pardo wasn’t alone in his skill assessment. Constand was heavily recruited by dozens of NCAA Division I schools, all offering lucrative athletic scholarships.
She chose the University of Arizona in Tucson. It was a losing program at the time, but Constand said she “hit it off” with the coach, Joan Bonvicini, and that she was told she’d be a starting player.
“I’m ecstatic and can hardly wait to go,” Constand told the Star in 1991when she signed her NCAA letter of intent to play for the Wildcats.
At Arizona, Constand’s best season was in her senior year. The Wildcats won a tier II national championship in 1996; the Canadian was named to the tournament all-star team. She also earned a BA in communications.
After university, Constand made Canada’s World University Games team in1997 then signed a pro contract worth a reported $30,000 (U.S.) to play in Italy. She hoped to eventually suit up for a Women’s National Basketball Association team.
However, a WNBA offer did not materialize. Through basketball contacts, Constand heard about a job with the women’s team at Temple University. She interviewed for the position of director of operations, clinched it and began in December 2001.
As director of operations, Constand’s responsibilities included team travel arrangements, team meals, game promotions, liaising with athletic department staff and summer basketball camps. She also travelled with the team.
Constand lived alone in an apartment near the campus. The university women’s head coach at the time, Dawn Staley, was her landlord.
In a 2005 statement to Montgomery County detectives who investigated her original complaint, Constand listed the types of women’s team supporters she connected with at Temple during booster events, like March Madness kick-off parties.
“Former alumni, community figures, professors, teachers, local politicians, other sports figures, celebrities, lots of different people. The purpose of the people coming to the functions was to promote Temple and the interest in Temple,” she said.
One of the regular boosters was Bill Cosby. He was introduced to the tall Canadian with the shock of thick curly hair at a Temple game by a mutual acquaintance in 2002.
“When I first met him, it was like, ‘Hi, how are you?” she recalled to police of her introduction to Cosby. “It lasted a minute.”
Constand, Cosby and two others then took a 10-minute tour of the women’s new locker room to see its renovations. About 15 minutes after the tour, Cosby ran into Constand again and he “asked me about my position with Temple,” according to Constand’s police statement.
Cosby called the women’s basketball office a few days later. Constand spoke to him on the phone; she said he was concerned that Staley may have personally paid for the locker renovations and he thought it was an unfair financial burden to assume.
Constand told detectives that Cosby called the basketball office “periodically” over the ensuing weeks and “sometimes we had conversations on the phone.” The entertainer gave Constand his home phone number; she gave him her personal cell number.
“I think he was asking me for a number that wasn’t at the office so that he could contact me to make the arrangements to go to his home for dinner,” Constand recalled in her 2005 statement.
She was soon invited to her first dinner at Cosby’s Elkins Park home. Three were present: Constand, Cosby and his private chef, John-Conrad Ste. Marthe, who prepared her meal.
According to Constand’s statement to police, it was also the first time Cosby made a sexual advance on her.
Bill Cosby
Bill Cosby’s official website introduces him to visitors like this:
“Charlie Chaplin. Groucho Marx. Richard Pryor.
“Over the past century, few entertainers have achieved the legendary status of William H. Cosby Jr. His successes span five decades and virtually all media, remarkable accomplishments for a kid who emerged from humble beginnings in a Philly project.”
Versatile and creative, Cosby built a mammoth entertainment career through hard work and intelligence. Its genesis, at least in part, was sparked by radio comedy shows he absorbed as that little kid in Philly.
Cosby laughed at and learned from funnymen like Jack Benny, George Burns and others who reached their audiences via radio until television sets became household staples. Their work inspired Cosby to pursue one of the toughest disciplines in showbiz: stand-up comedy. Not an easy gig for anyone. That he was an African-American in a racially polarized country, one roiling with civil rights protests in the 1960s, certainly added to the career challenges he faced.
But young Bill Cosby was funnier than most. He used family situations as fodder — familiar moments his audiences could relate to. His reputation grew.
An invitation to appear on Johnny Carson’s late-night show was an opportunity that could make or break a comedian’s career on national television. Cosby — only in his mid-20s in 1963 when Carson beckoned — nailed it.
Cosby also aced his rookie acting role (with Robert Culp) in the TV series I Spy, which ran from 1965-68. He was the first African-American to co-star in a primetime drama and the first to win an Emmy.
Cosby collected Grammys for his comedy albums, had his own short-lived TV series, called The Bill Cosby Show (he played a phys-ed teacher in Los Angeles) and starred in movies, including Uptown Saturday Night. He participated in educational programming for children, introduced the world to Fat Albert and his pals through animation, wrote books, including bestseller Fatherhood, and as a pitchman became forever linked to Jell-O snacks.
The Cosby Show, however, brought unprecedented fame.
In the hit sitcom that ran from 1984 to 1992, Cosby played Cliff Huxtable, a sweater-wearing physician who solved his TV family’s problems with humour and common sense. Cosby earned wide acclaim, again drawing on family experiences as a husband and father to drive plotlines. (In 1964, Cosby wed Camille Hanks, just 19. They had five children but tragedy would claim their son Ennis in 1997. He was shot to death during a failed attempt to rob him.)
Cosby’s fortune grew with his fame. The family was generous, sharing its wealth through donations with a focus on education. The Cosbys’ largest single gift was a $20-million endowment in the 1980s to Spelman College, a historically black women’s college in Atlanta.
As for his own schooling, Cosby played football at Temple on an athletic scholarship but dropped out to pursue standup. He later returned to the Temple family in an official capacity, becoming a trustee in 1982. Over the years, he gave several commencement addresses.
In Philadelphia, Cosby was synonymous with Temple.
So it was not unusual for the entertainer to be on the university campus. Nor was it unusual for him to be at a sports event, cheering on the Temple Owls. He would later tell police investigators that he met Constand in late 2002 at a basketball game and confirmed that they’d struck up a friendship through subsequent phone calls to the women’s basketball office. But each had a secret. Cosby was sexually attracted to Constand. Constand, who is gay, was dating a woman.
Despite those unspoken sentiments, the pair still seemed to maintain an enjoyable companionship. Constand valued Cosby’s advice. Cosby thought Constand had a future in sports broadcasting.
They exchanged gifts — such as cashmere sweaters for her, incense and Tshirts for him.
They spoke often by phone.
“I’m very proud of Andrea Constand and her courage in deciding to co-operate with the prosecution in this case.” GLORIA ALLRED HIGH-PROFILE U.S. LAWYER