Cosby’s legacy and freedom at stake
Actor’s trial begins in alleged assault
NORRISTOWN, Pa. - More than two years after Bill Cosby was shoved off his showbiz pedestal by an avalanche of accusations of sexual assault, the comedy icon went on trial Monday in a Pennsylvania court over what happened in an encounter with one accuser more than 13 years ago.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys presented their opening statements, each relying heavily on conversations Cosby and accuser Andrea Constand had with police more than a decade ago after Constand reported the alleged 2004 sexual assault, first to Canadian authorities, then to Montgomery County-area police, in 2005.
Prosecutor Kristen Feden urged the jury not to let feelings of sympathy toward Cosby’s celebrity influence interpretation of the evidence. Feden said Cosby offered Constand pills that he assured her were herbal and urged her, in his familiar “fatherly voice,” to take them. She did and became incapacitated, unable to consent to any sexual contact.
“Trust, betrayal and the inability to consent. That’s what this case is about,” Feden said. “The question here is whether Andrea Constand had the ability to consent … and the answer to the question is, ‘no.’ ”
Lead defense attorney Brian McMonagle reviewed for the jury the stakes involved for the man once called “America’s dad” and the seriousness of the charges.
“Sexual assault is a terrible crime; it takes away dignity,” he said. “The only thing worse than that is the false accusation of sexual assault.”
His voice grew louder as he argued that Constand changed her story to police. At first, Constand had insisted that she and Cosby never spoke after the alleged assault, but phone records showed 72 calls between the two in the months after, McMonagle said. A total of 53 of those were initiated by Constand, he said. Montgomery County investigators in 2005 looked at this evidence and dismissed the case, he said.
If Constand had suffered from the encounter, why did she continue to contact Cosby, McMonagle asked. She changed her story, McMonagle said.
“I promise by the end of this you’re going to find out why she changed her story,” McMonagle said.
Feden called these assertions “distractions.”
Cosby’s lawyers have tried repeatedly to get the case thrown out and have argued that the delayed prosecution makes the case impossible to defend, given that witnesses have died, memories have faded and the 79-year-old Cosby, they say, is blind.
Montgomery County Judge Steven O’Neill has given prosecutors permission to call only one of the five dozen women who have accused Cosby of drugging and/or raping them, a witness previously known as “Kacey,” but identified in court as Kelly Johnson. Feden said she will testify she endured a strikingly similar assault from Cosby in the late 1990s, and that her story demonstrates that Cosby followed a pattern of drugging and violating young women who sought him out as a mentor.
Cosby arrived at the courthouse Monday morning trailed by media cameras. In addition to his lawyers, bodyguards and assistants, he was accompanied by Keshia Knight Pulliam, who played his daughter Rudy on “The Cosby Show.”
Pulliam told reporters she came to the trial to support her TV dad.
“I want to be the person that I would like to have if the tables were turned,” she said. “Right now it’s the jury’s job and the jury’s decision to determine guilt or innocence. It’s not mine or anyone else’s.”
The trial is expected to last for about two weeks. Cosby has already said he won’t testify on the stand.