Cosby attorney continues to attack accuser’s credibility

Philadelphia Inquirer

NORRISTOWN — Confronting Bill Cosby’s chief accuser Monday, defense lawyer Tom Mesereau teed up the one question he had been preparing to ask Andrea Constand for months:

“Did you ever tell someone that you could falsely accuse someone else of sexual assault and make a lot of money?”

Prosecutors immediately objected. Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge Steven T. O’Neill called a recess to consider whether Ms. Constand should be required to respond. And in the end, she did.

But by the time she answered with a firm “No,” it had been nearly drowned out by the weight of the accusation inherent in the question.

Such was the dynamic throughout much of Ms. Constand’s second day on the witness stand as Mr. Mesereau challenged the only woman whose allegations against Mr. Cosby have managed to put the iconic comedian on trial.

Throughout, the lawyer’s questioning seemed designed less to elicit answers from Ms. Constand than to speak directly to jurors.

How well that tactic was able to successfully paint Ms. Constand as a grifter out to make a quick buck by conning a wealthy man will be key to Mr. Mesereau’s ability to win an acquittal in the sex-assault case.

Ms. Constand, during her nine hours on the witness stand over two days, largely held firm, sticking to a story she has told now through two trials and been repeating for more than a decade — that Mr. Cosby drugged and assaulted her in 2004 without her consent.

Later, the lawyer inquired, “Did you think it was appropriate to be in a married man’s hotel room in Connecticut at that time of night?” — a reference to a trip Ms. Constand took to see Mr. Cosby at Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut months before her alleged assault.

When she responded that it was Mr. Cosby who had invited her to his room, Mr. Mesereau quickly moved on, asking similar questions stressing Mr. Cosby’s marital status again and again.