Cosby lawyer attacks accuser as ‘con artist’ looking for ‘big score’

NORRISTOWN » Actor Bill Cosby was a “lonely and troubled” man who made the mistake of befriending Andrea Constand who falsely accused him of sexual assault with a goal to make a “big score” and become a multi-millionaire, the actor’s defense lawyer argued to a jury.

“You’re going to wonder, what does she want from Bill Cosby and you already know the answer. Money, money, money,” defense lawyer Thomas Mesereau

Jr. said in his opening remarks to jurors on Tuesday at the actor’s sexual assault retrial in Montgomery County Court. “She was madly in love with his fame and his money.

“She has a history of financial problems until she hits the jackpot with Bill Cosby,” said Mesereau, pointing to a $3,380,000 civil award Constand obtained against the entertainer in 2006. “She knew Mr. Cosby was extremely wealthy. Her attitude was, ‘I can become a multimillionaire, it’s a drop in the bucket for him.’ She knew exactly what she was doing and she pulled it off.”

Mesereau, the Los Angeles lawyer who successfully represented singer Michael Jackson on molestation charges in 2004, appeared calm and measured as he delivered a 45-minute opening statement that outlined the defense strategy that portrayed Constand, a former Temple University athletic department employee, as greedy and having a financial motive to lie.

Mesereau suggested the defense has emails to show that Constand was so financially strapped that she allegedly even tried to operate a pyramid scheme while employed in her job at Temple University, where Cosby also was a trustee.

“This is the person that the prosecution wants you to trust beyond a reasonable doubt? It’s our chance for justice. Watch what happens,” Mesereau addressed jurors.

Mesereau added Cosby “welcomes the opportunity for the truth to get out.”

“It’s brutal for him. He’s 80 years old and he’s legally blind. He welcomes the opportunity for some vindication. This case is nonsense,” Mesereau argued.

William Henry Cosby Jr., as his name appears on charging documents, faces three counts of aggravated indecent assault in connection with allegations he had inappropriate sexual contact with Constand at his Cheltenham home after plying her with blue pills and wine sometime between mid-January and mid-February 2004.

Cosby, 80, has maintained his contact with Constand was consensual.

District Attorney Kevin R. Steele presented the first of five additional women, who accuse Cosby of sexual misconduct between the years 1982 and 1996, to demonstrate Cosby’s alleged “common plan and scheme.” Heidi Johnson Thomas, a onetime aspiring actress who is now a Colorado music teacher, testified Cosby sexually assaulted her in 1984 in Reno, Nev., where she had gone to meet him for a mentoring Actor and comedian Bill Cosby returns from lunch during his sexual assault retrial at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, on Tuesday. session arranged by her talent agent.

During the audition, Thomas testified, she took one sip of white wine being used as a prop and everything became “fuzzy.”

“There’s just nothing. It’s just blank. It’s like snapshots,” Thomas said about her memory of the incident, adding in one “snapshot” she saw Cosby sexually assaulting her. “I kept thinking how did I get here? This is not what I came here for. I felt so sick.”

Thomas testified she didn’t tell anyone about the alleged incident for many years and said that while she has gone public with the allegations she has never sought legal representation or sought anything from Cosby.

Mesereau attacked the prosecution’s strategy of having other accusers of uncharged conduct testify at the trial.

“See it for what it is. It’s called prosecution by discretion. When you don’t have a case you have to fill the time with something else,” Mesereau argued.

On Monday, Steele argued to the jury of seven men and five women that Cosby was a trusted mentor who abused the friendship he had with Constand by drugging and sexually assaulting her, calling it a case of “betrayal.”

But Mesereau suggested Cosby didn’t betray Constand and that it was she who “milked him for over $3 million.”

Saying “all that glitters is not always gold” when it comes to the lives of celebrities, Mesereau suggested Cosby was a “lonely and troubled” man still reeling from the 1997 murder of his son, Ennis, and an extortion plot by another woman when he befriended Constand and “made the terrible mistake” of confiding in her about his life.

“This was a big score she was working on,” Mesereau argued. “Hollywood is a treacherous place and when you’re a star everyone wants a piece of the action.

“He was foolish. He was ridiculous and attracted to a younger woman,” Mesereau added about Cosby. “But he’s not a criminal.”

Judge Steven T. O’Neill ruled previously that evidence of the October 2006 civil settlement between Cosby and Constand, including the previously undisclosed monetary amount, was admissible evidence at the criminal trial.

Evidence of the civil settlement was not part of Cosby’s first trial in June 2017, which ended in a mistrial after jurors could not reach a verdict after two weeks of testimony and deliberations.

The trial represents the first time Cosby, who played Dr. Cliff Huxtable on “The Cosby Show” from 1984 to 1992, has been charged with a crime despite allegations from dozens of women who claimed they were assaulted by the entertainer.

Hinting at the defense team’s star witness, Mesereau informed jurors they will hear from a woman who worked with Constand at Temple University and who will testify that Constand once told her she could “set up a celebrity” and fabricate a claim of sexual assault to “get money to go to school and open a business.” Mesereau was referring to

Marguerite “Margo” Jackson, described in court papers as “a friend and colleague” of Constand, whose testimony Judge O’Neill ruled is admissible during the retrial.

Mesereau argued Constand gave inconsistent statements to authorities concerning the date of the alleged assault and about her contact with Cosby before and after the alleged incident and that she can’t be trusted. Constand, defense lawyers argued, continued to have contact with Cosby and even gave him gifts after the alleged sexual assault.

“What do you get? A con artist is what you get. We’ll prove it,” Mesereau argued.

Constand didn’t report the alleged sexual assault to police until January 2005, about a year after she claimed it occurred.

This newspaper does not normally identify victims of sex crimes without their consent but is using Constand’s name because she has identified herself publicly.

ASSOCIATED PRESS