DA: Cosby discussed ‘Spanish Fly’ in interview, book
Bill Cosby’s alleged discussion of a daterape drug in a nonfiction book he wrote and during an interview on “The Larry King Show” in 1991 should be heard by the jury at the actor’s trial on charges he sexually assaulted a woman in 2004, prosecutors contend.
“These prior bad acts are relevant and do not unfairly prejudice defendant because they tend to establish that he had access to, knowledge of, and a motive and intent to knowingly use substances that would render a female unconscious for the purpose of engaging in sex acts,” Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin R. Steele wrote in court papers filed Thursday.
Cosby, 79, faces a June 5 trial on charges of aggravated indecent assault in connection with his alleged contact with Andrea Constand, a former Temple University athletic department employee, after plying her with blue pills and wine at his Cheltenham home sometime between mid-January and mid-February 2004.
Steele’s request to use excer pts from Cosby ’s book and television interview against him at trial will likely be addressed when county Judge Steven T. O’Neill holds a pretrial hearing April 3 on the admissibility of certain evidence.
Quoting from Cosby’s 1991 book “Childhood,” Steele and co-prosecutors M. Stewart Ryan and Kristen Feden contend the actor recounted a memory from his youth in which he and his friends seek out “Spanish Fly, an aphrodisiac so potent that it could have made Lena Horne surrender to Fat Albert.”
Cosby, according to Steele, wrote that he and his friends needed the aphrodisiac because females were “never in the mood for us.” After explaining how he and his friends unsuccessfully tried to secretly slip what they thought was Spanish Fly to a group of girls, Cosby, according to court documents, wrote, “My style perhaps could have been smoother, but this, after all, was the first aphrodisiac I ever had pushed.”
“These excerpts are relevant to proving that defendant had knowledge of a date-rape drug, and a motive and intent to use it on the victim, because, according to him, women were ‘never in the mood,’” Steele wrote.
The book excerpts, Steele maintained, also suggest Cosby “had a willingness and motive to push ‘chemicals’ to obtain sex from the otherwise unwilling victim.”
In court documents, prosecutors contend that in the 1991 interview on “The Larry King Show,” Cosby extolled Spanish Fly as a drug that “all boys from age 11 on up to death” will be searching for.
“He explained that all it took was a single drop into a woman’s drink and she was then yours,” Steele alleged, claiming the interview is relevant because it tends to prove Cosby “had knowledge of date-rape drugs, that he was searching for them ‘ up to death,’ and that he was willing to slip them to the victim in this case.”
The excerpts of the book and television show interview are as relevant as admissions Cosby made in his deposition in a 2005 civil suit brought against him by Constand, Steele implied.
In that deposition, Cosby, according to court documents, admitted that in the past he obtained Quaaludes to give to women with whom he wanted to have sex.
“This evidence is relevant to the case. It tends to prove that at the time he drugged the victim, he had knowledge of powerful drugs that would render his victim unconscious and facilitate a sexual assault,” Steele argued in court papers. “Lastly, it is relevant to proving that he had the motive and intent to administer an intoxicant to the victim in order to obtain sex.”
O’Neill previously ruled that portions of Cosby’s de- position testimony can be heard by the jury.
Defense lawyers Brian J. McMonagle and Angela C. Agrusa had not filed a response to Steele’s request as of Thursday afternoon.
But Steele, appearing ready for a defense challenge, acknowledged that Cosby, in an effort to try to keep the “damaging admissions” out of trial, may argue that the excerpts from his book and “The Larry King Show” were merely jokes or artistic expressions.
“While it would certainly shock the modern social conscience to laugh at, make light of, or joke about drugging and raping women, it is possible defendant may cling to the cloak of comedy to avoid culpability,” Steele wrote. “Regardless, his argument would be unavailing.”
Steele argued Cosby cannot characterize the deposition, book and television excerpts as vague or unsubstantiated.
“Instead, these are powerful and damaging admissions, in two instances coming straight from defendant’s mouth and in the other from the tip of his pen,” Steele wrote. “It would be difficult for defendant to cite failing memory or faculties as bars to the admission of these prior, well-documented statements.”
The newspaper does not normally identify victims of sex crimes without their consent but is using Constand’s name because she has identified herself publicly.