Prosecution rests in Cosby sex assault trial
NORRISTOWN, Pa. — Prosecutors wrapped up their case against Bill Cosby yesterday, saving until practically the very end the comedian’s damaging, decade-testimony about giving quaaludes to women he wanted to have sex with.
The prosecution called 12 witnesses over five brisk days of testimony in the sexual assault case that could send the 79-year-old TV star to prison for the rest of his life. The defense will begin presenting its side Monday.
Testifying under oath in 2005, Cosby said he obtained several prescriptions for quaaludes in the 1970s and offered the now-banned sedatives to others, “the same as a person would say, ‘Have a drink,’ ” according to the deposition read to the jury.
“When you got the quaaludes, was it in your mind that you were going to use these quaaludes for young women that you wanted to have sex with?” the comic once known as America’s Dad was asked. “Yes,” he said. Cosby is on trial on charges he drugged and sexually violated former Temple University women’s basketball team employee Andrea Costand, now 44, at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004. He has said it was consensual.
In the deposition, which became public nearly two years ago, Cosby said he gave Constand three half-tablets of the cold and allergy medicine Benadryl. Prosecutors have suggested he gave her something stronger — perhaps quaaludes, a highly popular party drug in the 1970s that was banned in the U.S. in 1982.
Prosecutors evidently saved the quaalude testimony until the end for maximum effect. Defense lawyer Brian McMonagle, clearly wanting to move past Cosby’s talk about giving drugs to women, asked no questions about it on cross-examination.
The final prosecution witness, toxicologist Dr. Timothy Rohrig, testified that wooziness and other effects Constand described could have been caused by Benadryl or quaaludes.
Cosby smiled as he walked out of court at the end of the day, raising his wooden cane to salute well-wishers who yelled, “We love you, Bill Cosby!” and “Hey, hey, hey!,” the catchphrase from his “Fat Albert” TV show.
The comedian gave the deposition as part of a lawsuit filed by Constand and later settled for an undisclosed sum. His testimony was sealed for years until portions were released by a judge in 2015 at the request of The Associated Press.
For the jury, the deposition could be the closest it comes to hearing from Cosby himself, since he said recently that he did not intend to take the stand.