Cosby’s lawyer calls star’s accuser a ‘con artist’
BILL Cosby’s lawyer has launched a blistering courtroom attack on the comedian’s accuser, portraying her as a con artist whose goal was “money, money and lots more money”.
Lawyer Tom Mesereau told jurors in his opening statement at the former TV star’s sex assault trial that Andrea Constand was not attracted to Cosby but was “madly in love” with his fame and money and made up the accusations to score a big payday.
He told the court in Pennsylvania that she “hit the jackpot” when Cosby paid her $3.4m (£2.4m) to settle a lawsuit over allegations he drugged and molested her in 2004.
Prosecutors claim the Cosby Show star gave Ms Constand pills and then assaulted her at his suburban Philadelphia mansion.
Cosby, 80, faces three counts of aggravated indecent assault, each punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
A jury was deadlocked at his first trial last spring, setting the stage for a retrial.
District attorney Kevin Steele had revealed the previously secret settlement in his opening statement on Monday, in an apparent attempt to suggest Cosby would not have paid out so much money if the accusations against him were false.
Mr Mesereau told jurors that Ms Constand was in deep financial trouble and pinned all her hopes on what she could milk from her relationship with Cosby.
Some 60 women have come forward with allegations against Cosby dating to the 1960s. In a deposition he gave as part of Ms Constand’s lawsuit, the comedian acknowledged giving quaaludes to women he wanted to have sex with.
In the deposition, Cosby said he gave Ms Constand three half-tablets of the cold and allergy medicine Benadryl.
Prosecutors have suggested he gave her something stronger – perhaps quaaludes, a popular party drug in the 1970s that was banned in the US in 1982.