$3.4 MIL PAYOFF TO ACCUSER REVEALED

BILL COSBY paid Andrea Constand nearly $3.4 million to settle allegations he sexually assaulted her at his suburban Philadelphia mansion in 2004, a prosecutor said Monday during opening statements at the comic’s retrial on molestation charges. Cosby’s camp fought to keep the size of the secret 2006 settlement out of the comedian’s first trial in Pennsylvania last year, but his new defense team reversed course and plans to use it to argue Constand (inset) fabricated her claims for financial gain. Montgomery County, Pa., District Attorney Kevin Steele had the first chance to reveal the eyepopping sum to jurors Monday, and hopes it will convince them Cosby made the substantial payment after calculating Constand likely would have prevailed had her civil lawsuit gone to trial. Cosby, 80, is charged with drugging and molesting Constand while she was a manager of the Temple University women’s basketball team and he was a high-profile university trustee. Constand, 44, claims she considered Cosby a father figure and professional mentor when she visited him at his estate to discuss her career.