Cosby accuser denies allegation of scam

NORRISTOWN, Pa. — Bill Cosby’s chief accuser on Monday rejected a defense allegation that she manufactured her account of sexual molestation and was backed up by her mother, who said the comedian called himself a “sick man.”

Andrea Constand withstood a defense cross-examination that sought to expose her as a con artist who set Cosby up, leaving the witness stand at his retrial without having budged off her allegation that he drugged and molested her at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004.

Constand, a former Temple University women’s basketball administrator, remained calm and composed throughout lasted more than seven hours over two days.

Her mother followed her on the witness stand Monday. She testified about a phone conversation she said she had with Cosby about a year after the alleged assault. She said Cosby told her he’d given Andrea Constand a prescription drug — not the cold and allergy medicine Benadryl, as he has claimed recently. She said he also described how he’d touched her daughter’s breasts and vagina and guided her hand to his penis.

“He said to me, ‘Don’t worry, Mom, there was no penile penetration,’” Gianna Constand testified.

She told jurors that Cosby said he “felt like a dirty old perverted man” and conceded he was a “sick man.”

Andrea Constand told jurors last week that Cosby knocked then sexually assaulted her. Cosby, now 80, says Constand consented to a sexual encounter.

The defense is trying to portray Constand as an opportunist who feigned romantic interest in Cosby and then leveled a false accusation so she could file a lawsuit.

The defense said Constand called Cosby twice on Valentine’s Day, about a month after the alleged assault. Constand has said her phone calls to Cosby were about basketball and had nothing to do with romance.

Phone records show Constand made brief calls to Cosby around the time of a Temple home game on Feb. 14, 2004, a month after the alleged assault. Constand testified that she felt a duty to answer Cosby’s inquiries because he was a powerful trustee.