‘IT’S ABOUT TIME’
BILL COSBY’S stunning fall from “America’s Dad” to accused sex predator is about to enter its most dramatic chapter — his felony criminal trial.
Jury selection begins Monday in Pittsburgh — with opening statements set to begin June 5.
“It’s about time,” Beth Ferrier, one of Cosby’s many accusers not involved in the court proceeding, told the Daily News.
“I’m hoping — and praying — he’s found guilty, as he should be,” Ferrier said. “I hold him accountable for destroying so many lives.”
Cosby, 79, is accused of luring former Temple University staffer Andrea Constand, 44, to his Elkins Park, Pa., mansion in 2004 under the false guise of mentorship.
Prosecutors say he plied her with three blue pills and wine, urged her to “relax,” and sexually assaulted her on a couch as her vision blurred, her legs turned “rubbery” and she began fading “in and out.”
Cosby has pleaded not guilty to three charges of aggravated indecent assault, claiming any contact or drug consumption was consensual. Each charge carries up to 10 years in prison.
Experts say the trial Constand’s testimony.
“This is going to be a case that essentially stands or falls on Andrea Constand — what the jury sees in her, all the tangibles and intangibles that make up credibility,” said Lynne Abraham, a former Philadelphia district attorney and judge.
“If she comes on the witness stand and stutters or says she can’t remember anything, that’s not so good. Or if she says the same thing 25 times over without a lick of variation, that might sound like a script,” she added.
All Cosby has to do is convince one juror that Constand is lying, she said.
His lawyers have little choice but to attack mightily on cross-examination, asking why Constand waited nearly a year to go to police and why she willingly met him at his house after he tried hitting on her twice before.
To the roughly 60 Cosby accusers who will be watching from the sidelines, Constand is their best shot at making Cosby pay for his alleged crimes.
“Andrea is a hero to all of us,” accuser Kristina Ruehli, told The News. “I think this case is really in good hands, and I do think Cosby will be convicted.”
Ruehli, 74, stepped forward as a Jane Doe willing to testify when Constand sued Cosby in federal court in March 2005, a month after Montgomery County, Pa., prosecutors declined to file charges.
She says Cosby invited her to his house in 1965, drugged her bourbon cocktail and tried to force her into oral sex.
“Cosby is ruined and deserves it, even if (he’s) not convicted. Nothing — not even a conviction — can ever take away the harm he did to his victims,” she said. Cosby handed her a beverage to
“Andrea Constand is not a “relax” — and she quickly started liar. I know she’s telling the feeling woozy. She woke up truth,” Ferrier said, explaining hours later in the back of her car she was also moved to step up as with her clothing disheveled and a Jane Doe in 2005. her bra undone, she said.
A former model who dated When she read about Cosby in 1984 as “The Cosby Constand’s case in 2005, she was Show” began its meteoric rise, immediately struck by its eerie Ferrier claims it wasn’t until similarity to her own festering she ended her consensual affair secret, she said. with the comedian and visited Speaking to The News last him at a performance in Denver week, Ferrier, 57, praised that he pounced. She claims Constand for agreeing to testify will hinge on even though she reached a private settlement with Cosby in 2006 and was living a comfortable life in Canada by the time his scandal exploded with a new wave of accusers in 2014.
“I just want to embrace her. All of us, we’re wishing her strength,” Ferrier said.
According to Abraham, the fact that Constand previously settled with Cosby could help the prosecution.
“The general argument usually is, ‘She’s only in it for the money.’ Well, she already got the money,” Abraham said. “She doesn’t have to go through this, but she obviously wishes to, and she has a right to tell her story.”
Cosby’s lawyers declined to comment.
Their client, meanwhile, gave a rare interview to SiriusXM radio host Michael Smerconish last week saying he won’t testify in his own defense. Cosby also suggested racism and revenge motivated the “nefarious” allegations against him.
Once his estimated two-week trial gets underway, his lawyers are expected to paint Constand as a willing former lover who gave unambiguous nonverbal clues signaling her consent.
Constand, meanwhile, says she is gay and previously told police she was involved in a monogamous relationship with a woman during most of her friendship with Cosby.