Prosecutors use Bill Cosby’s own words against him
Bill Cosby’s own words, taken from testimony he gave during a civil suit, were used by prosecutors to support their claim that he drugged, incapacitated and sexually assaulted a woman at his Cheltenham mansion in 2004.
“And then I went upstairs and got three pills. I brought them down. They are the equivalent of one and a half,” said Cosby, adding he offered them to Andrea Constand because she was “talking about stress” in her neck and shoulders. “I said these are three friends.”
Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin R. Steele displayed Cosby’s words on a large projection screen on Thursday during the fourth day of Cosby’s trial at which he’s charged with three counts of aggravated indecent assault in connection with his alleged contact with Constand, a former Temple University athletic department employee, after plying her with blue pills and wine at his home sometime between mid-January and mid-February 2004.
While Cosby has said he won’t testify at his trial, prosecutors, with the use of the deposition testimony, made sure his words were still heard by the jury that will weigh his fate.
Cosby was deposed in connection with a lawsuit brought against him by Constand over four days in September 2005 and March 2006. The suit ultimately settled for an undisclosed amount in July 2006.
Authorities did not charge Cosby in 2005 but prosecutors reopened a criminal investigation against Cosby in July 2015 after portions of his deposition connected to the civil suit were unsealed by a federal judge and his sordid testimony was exposed.
County Detective James Reape testified he was assigned in July 2015 “to take a look at this investigation” and to obtain the transcripts of Cosby’s deposition testimony. Steele relied on Reape to read the testimony to the jury as they viewed it on large projection screen.
“When did you first develop a romantic interest in Andrea?” Reape read the question put to Cosby during the civil deposition more than a decade ago.
“Probably the first time I saw her,” Cosby responded, referring to seeing Constand at Temple University’s arena. “She’s good-looking.”
The questioner asked Cosby what were his plans at the time.
“Sort of whatever happens,” he responded during the deposition.
When asked about the alleged night in question Cosby identified the three blue pills he gave to Constand to relieve her stress as Benadryl.
Cosby, who has suggested the sexual contact with Constand was consensual, testified in the deposition he began touching Constand.
“I go into that area that is somewhere between permission and rejection,” Cosby said according to testimony. “She did not stop me.”
Cosby later described Constand after the sexual contact.
“I feel a glow. I feel that Andrea has a glow about her sexual moment,” Cosby testified.
Cosby, who turns 80 in July, showed no reaction as the detective read his previous words to the jury.
Testimony regarding Cosby’s deposition will continue on Friday. Prosecutors have also alleged that in that deposition Cosby admitted to obtaining quaaludes to give to women with whom he wanted to have sex.
Constand, 44, testified over two days that after taking the blue pills she began slurring her words and became “frozen” or paralyzed and was unable to fight off Cosby’s sexual advances. The former director of women’s basketball operations at Temple said Cosby placed her on a couch, touched her breasts, forced her to touch his penis and performed digital penetration all without her consent.
Constand did not report the allegations to police until a year later, on Jan. 13, 2005, after returning to her native Canada.
Steele and co-prosecutors M. Stewart Ryan and Kristen Feden also revealed what Cosby told detectives during an interview on Jan. 26, 2005.
Cheltenham Detective Sgt. Richard Schaffer testified that Cosby claimed he gave Constand over-thecounter Benadryl pills and he admitted to “touching and kissing with clothes on.” Cosby, according to his statement, said he put his hands under Constand’s clothing and touched her breast and her genitals.
During the interview Cosby claimed Constand never told him to “Stop” and never pushed him away, inferring the encounter was consensual, according to testimony. Cosby also claimed Constand was awake during the encounter and that she never told him she felt paralyzed or negatively affected by the Benadryl.
“I never intended to have intercourse, like naked bodies, with Andrea. We are fully clothed, we are petting. I enjoyed it,” Cosby allegedly told detectives at the time.
Detectives asked Cosby if he had any “petting or romantic relationship” with Constand prior to the January 2004 incident and Cosby replied, “Yes, at least three other times in my house” and he said he initiated the petting, according to testimony.
Cosby maintained that on every occasion Constand was a willing participant. When asked directly if he had intercourse with Constand, Cosby answered, “never asleep or awake.”
“Why did you not have sexual intercourse?” a detective asked Cosby in 2005.
“I didn’t feel like it. I like the petting, the touching,” Cosby replied, according to his statement read in court.
McMonagle and co-defense lawyer Angela C. Agrusa implied Constand gave inconsistent statements to authorities concerning the date of the alleged assault and about her contact with Cosby before and after the alleged incident.
Specifically, Constand initially told police the date of the alleged assault may have been March 16, 2004. However, in a later interview and in her testimony this week Constand said the
incident occurred in mid January 2004.
“I was mistaken,” Constand testified, referring to the March 16 date she had previously given.
Constand also initially told detectives she had no phone contact with Cosby after the alleged incident. But McMonagle and Agrusa argued Constand phoned Cosby 53 times after the alleged incident, including two phone calls on Valentine’s Day.
“You knew Mr. Cosby was married, right?” Agrusa asked Constand on Wednesday.
“Yes,” Constand replied. Downplaying the Valentine’s Day calls, Ryan, through Schaffer’s testimony on Thursday, displayed a phone record that showed Constand also called other people on that same day.
If convicted of the charges at trial Cosby, an entertainment icon who remains free on 10 percent of $1 million bail, faces a possible maximum sentence of 15 to 30 years in prison.
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.