Victim mostly quiet on Cosby
Entertainer to wear ankle monitor; legal team looks to appeal
Andrea Constand, the woman whose sexual assault complaint against the television icon Bill Cosby led to his conviction, broke her long public silence with a short Twitter message Friday thanking the local community.
“A very profound and heartfelt thank you to the Commonwealth of PA, Montgomery County, for their service and sacrifices,” she wrote, seemingly addressing the district attorney’s office and the jury that on Thursday convicted Cosby of drugging and sexually assaulting Constand.
“Congratulations,” she added. “Truth prevails.”
After a high-profile trial like Cosby’s, the vindicated party traditionally makes the media rounds, appearing to discuss the case on the Today show or Good Morning America. Constand has not yet done so.
In court, Constand testified that Cosby had drugged and molested her at his home in 2004. She has been reluctant to speak publicly about the case. That may be due, in part, to the nondisclosure agreement she signed as part of the $3.38 million settlement she reached with Cosby in 2006.
Last year, a judge ruled that Cosby could pursue a lawsuit against Constand based on two Twitter posts she wrote in 2014. “I won’t go away, there is a lot more I will say,” she wrote in one. But as the #MeToo movement against sexual abuse has gained influence, women who have agreed to settlements with powerful men — including Harvey Weinstein, Bill O’Reilly and Donald Trump — have broken their nondisclosure agreements, arguing that speaking out was more important.
Constand’s lawyer, Dolores Troiani, said by phone Friday that she and her client were evaluating their options and the enforceability of the contract with Cosby.
“Obviously everyone in the world has sent me an email or text, but we’re just stepping back and seeing where we’re going to go,” Troiani said, referring to the extensive media requests for interviews with Constand. “I think we’re taking a breather, for one.”
At a news conference after the verdict Thursday, Constand stood by, letting the Montgomery County district attorney, Kevin Steele, and Kristen Gibbons Feden, the special prosecutor on the case, speak about its importance.
Steele commended Constand for fighting through two trials. “She has been a major factor in a movement that has gone in the right direction, finally,” he said.
Meanwhile, Cosby’s team blasted his sexual-assault trial as a “public lynching” Friday and began looking ahead to an appeal as the judge ordered house arrest for the 80-yearold comedian and said Cosby would be outfitted with a GPS ankle monitoring device.
Cosby’s appeal seems certain to focus on the judge’s decision to let a parade of women testify that they, too, were abused by the former TV star.
Defense allegations of a biased juror and the admission of Cosby’s explosive testimony about drugs and sex are among other possible avenues of appeal as he tries to avoid a sentence that could keep him in prison for the rest of his life.
Cosby remains free on $1 million bond while he awaits sentencing, probably within three months.
Judge Steven O’Neill said Cosby would be confined to his suburban Philadelphia home in the meantime. The judge’s order, issued Friday afternoon, said the comic may leave his house to meet with his lawyers or to get medical treatment, but must get permission first.
Also Friday, Temple University, where Cosby long served as a leading public face and key fundraiser, said it will rescind the honorary doctorate it awarded to the comedian in 1991.
The Philadelphia university said its board of trustees accepted a recommendation Friday to rescind the degree, citing Thursday’s jury verdict finding him guilty of drugging and molesting Constand, who managed the school’s women’s basketball team in 2004.
Cosby received a bachelor’s degree from Temple, which was among few that waited to pull honors from Cosby until after the verdict.
More than 20 colleges and universities across the U.S. had revoked honorary degrees given to Cosby before the verdict in light of allegations against him. Ohio State University’s governing board pulled a 2001 degree from Cosby this month in the days leading up to his retrial.