Prosecutors in Cosby sex assault trial rest case
NORRISTOWN, Pennsylvannia — Prosecutors wrapped up their case against Bill Cosby on Friday, saving until practically the end the comedian’s damaging, decadeold testimony about giving quaaludes to women with whom he wanted to have sex.
The prosecution called 12 witnesses over five days of testimony in the sexual assault case that could send the 79-year-old TV star to prison for the rest of his life. The defence will begin presenting its side on Monday.
Testifying under oath in 2005, Cosby said he obtained several prescriptions for quaaludes in the 1970s and offered the now-banned sedatives to others, “the same as a person would say: ‘Have a drink,’ ” according to the deposition read to the jury.
“When you got the quaaludes, was it in your mind that you were going to use these quaaludes for young women that you wanted to have sex with?” the comic, once known as “America’s Dad,” was asked. “Yes,” he said.
Cosby is charged with drugging and sexually violating former Temple University women’s basketball team employee Andrea Constand, now 44, at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004. He has said it was consensual.
In the deposition, which became public nearly two years ago, Cosby said he gave Toronto native Constand three half-tablets of the cold and allergy medicine Benadryl. Prosecutors have suggested he gave her something stronger — perhaps quaaludes, a popular party drug in the 1970s that was banned in the U.S. in 1982. Prosecutors evidently saved the quaalude testimony until the end for maximum effect. Defence lawyer Brian McMonagle, wanting to move past Cosby’s talk about giving drugs to women, did not ask questions about it on cross-examination.
Prosecution witness Dr. Timothy Rohrig, a toxicologist, testified that wooziness and other effects Constand described could have been caused by Benadryl or quaaludes.
Cosby smiled as he walked out of court at the end of the day, raising his wooden cane to salute wellwishers who yelled: “We love you, Bill Cosby,” and “Hey, hey, hey,” the catchphrase from his TV show Fat Albert. He then waved from the back of an SUV.
The comedian gave the deposition as part of a lawsuit filed by Constand and later settled for an undisclosed sum. His testimony was sealed for years until portions were released by a judge in 2015 at the request of the Associated Press. The release of the testimony spurred Pennsylvania prosecutors to reopen their investigation and arrest Cosby a decade after the district attorney who originally investigated Constand’s complaint decided the case was too weak to bring charges.
For the jury, the deposition could be the closest it comes to hearing from Cosby himself, since he said recently that he did not intend to take the stand.
In his testimony, Cosby said he apologized to Constand’s mother over the telephone for the sexual encounter with her daughter because he was afraid she thought of him as “a dirty old man.”
“I apologized to this woman. But my apology was, my God, I’m in trouble with these people because this is an old man and their young daughter, and the mother sees this,” he said.
Cosby also recounted offering to pay for graduate school for Constand. She turned him down.
Prosecutors put on the stand a psychologist who testified that victims of celebrities are often afraid to come forward because of a possible backlash. Constand did not go to police until a year after the alleged assault.
“If it’s a well-known person, the victim takes on a lot of responsibility for that person’s reputation, especially if that person is wellliked or beloved,” Veronique Valliere testified.
Cosby’s lawyers asked for a mistrial, saying Valliere was offering observations about Cosby even though she was only allowed to testify generally about victim behaviour. The judge rejected the request.