Cosby trial opens with 2nd accuser’s testimony
Her account of ’90s interaction mirrors Andrea Constand’s
NORRISTOWN, PA. Bill Cosby went on trial here Monday over what happened in a sexual encounter with one accuser more than 13 years ago. But the first witness he faced was another accuser who says he drugged and sexually assaulted her 21 years ago in a hotel bungalow in Los Angeles.
Kelly Johnson tearfully testified that Cosby did to her what he is accused of doing to Andrea Constand in 2004 at his home nearby. But Cosby’s defense team managed to poke some holes in Johnson’s memory of what she says happened to her, including mixing up the date of when it allegedly happened.
Johnson, previously known by a pseudonym, “Kacey,” was called to the stand by prosecutors to testify about Cosby’s alleged “prior bad acts,” to help prosecutors establish what they say is a pattern of sexual behavior with women by Cosby that would bolster the story of the accuser in this trial, Constand.
Johnson testified Cosby invited her “in a Dr. Huxtable kind of way” to lunch alone at the Bel Air Hotel. He greeted her in slippers and a bathrobe and gave her a large white pill he said would help her relax.
“I said ‘ Oh no, I’m fine, I’m fine.’ And we went back and forth,” she said. “I thought that I would put the pill under my tongue and then spit it out … but he leaned over and said ‘lift up your tongue’ … and there it was.” She swallowed it, then rushed to the bathroom, which was “covered with prescription pill bottles,” Johnson said. “I didn’t need glasses then, but for some reason I couldn’t read the bottles,” she said, starting to weep.
She lost consciousness. She next remembers waking up on the bed with Cosby beside her with her dress pulled up and her breasts exposed, she said, crying more forcefully on the stand.
“He put lotion in my hand and made me touch his penis,” she said.
Johnson, who worked for Cosby’s agent, filed a report with human resources and left the office. Later, she was terminated.
Johnson was the only accuser out of a dozen sought by prosecutors allowed by Judge Steven O’Neill to testify at Cosby’s trial on three counts of aggravated indecent assault in connection with a 2004 encounter with Constand. Johnson’s story resembles Constand’s: Woman seeks career advice from mentor, is invited to meet with him alone, accepts pills she is told are harmless and meant to help her relax, and soon falls into unconsciousness or paralysis.
On cross-examination, Cosby’s lead defense lawyer Brian McMonagle sharply questioned why Johnson’s testimony apparently contradicted an under-oath deposition she had given in 1996 after her termination. He implied that she had first said the assault took place in 1991, not in 1996.
Why should the jury trust her recollection in 2017 and not the testimony from the ’90s, he asked.
He also questioned why she never said anything about the Cosby encounter to anyone at the agency. Johnson says she was afraid to accuse the agency’s biggest client and a major star.
Earlier Monday, prosecutors and defense attorneys presented opening statements, each relying on conversations Cosby and Constand had with police more than a decade ago after Constand reported the alleged 2004 sexual assault, first to Canadian authorities, then to Montgomery County-area police, in 2005.
Prosecutor Kristen Feden urged the jury not to let sympathy toward Cosby’s celebrity influence interpretation of the evidence.
“Trust, betrayal and the inability to consent. That’s what this case is about,” Feden said. “The question here is whether Andrea Constand had the ability to consent … and the answer to the question is, ‘no.’ ”
McMonagle reviewed the stakes involved for the 79-yearold once called “America’s dad” and the gravity of the charges.
“Sexual assault is a terrible crime, it takes away dignity,” he said. “The only thing worse than that is the false accusation of sexual assault.”