Accuser felt ‘paralysed’ by Cosby
Bill Cosby, once synonymous with middle-class family values, sat rubbing his chin through hours of graphic testimony about drugs and sexual encounters yesterday before a judge concluded there was sufficient evidence for him to stand trial on charges of sexual assault.
It marked a dramatic turn for the longtime comedy superstar, a crucial step in the only criminal case to spring from dozens of accusations that have upended his career and his legacy. If convicted on three sex crime counts, Cosby faces up to 10 years in prison.
‘‘This case will move forward,’’ Judge Elizabeth A McHugh told a crowded courtroom at the end of a 31⁄2-hour hearing that focused in part on accuser Andrea Constand’s claim that Cosby invited her to his home in 2004 and gave her several pills that made her dizzy and almost unable to see, before assaulting her.
Constand and Cosby had met at Temple University, where she was director of operations for the women’s basketball team. He was a prominent booster for the Philadelphia university whom she saw as a mentor.
Cosby has insisted that his encounters with Constand and other women were consensual.
But even as the now-hobbled, 78-year-old comedian was ordered to stand trial, the preliminary hearing illustrated the difficulty prosecutors could have in convicting him over an incident that happened more than a decade ago, with scant physical evidence.
Defence attorney Brian McMonagle attempted to undermine Constand’s credibility, cast doubt on foggy memories of police investigators, and underscore the dearth of physical evidence in the case.
He called out Constand for accepting tickets to one of Cosby’s performances some time after the incident, even though she had told police initially she’d had no contact with him afterward.
McMonagle was so animated in his defence, and so eager to take apart the accuser’s story, that the judge at one point admonished him for grandstanding.
Constand did not testify at the hearing, which had a much lower standard of proof than a jury trial and allowed so-called hearsay evidence.
Cosby barely spoke during the hearing, only saying ‘‘thank you’’ to the judge twice after she advised him of his next hearing and wished him luck.
Prosecutors instead relied on statements from Constand and Cosby taken in 2005, months after an incident at Cosby’s home in suburban Philadelphia.
Constand was 31 at the time of the alleged assault, which she first reported to police in 2005. She has since moved to Canada but is expected to testify at the trial, which will be scheduled during a hearing in July.
Cosby is defending lawsuits across the country. But in most cases, the criminal statute of limitations has expired. The Pennsylvania case, filed just before the deadline at the end of last year, is the sole criminal matter.
Defence attorneys have tried to have the charges thrown out, arguing that a deposition Cosby gave in a civil suit could not be used against him and that the prosecution is politically motivated. Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele charged Cosby after defeating former DA Bruce Castor, who had declined to prosecute the case when it initially emerged.
‘‘These will make you feel good. The blue things will take the edge off,’’ Cosby allegedly told Constand on the evening of the January 2004 incident, handing her three pills and demanding she ‘‘down them’’, according to court documents.
Cosby also offered her wine, she reported, insisting, ‘‘You can nurse it’’ when she tried to refuse it because she had not eaten all day.
After Constand’s vision blurred and her legs wobbled, she described coming in and out of consciousness. ‘‘I started to panic,’’ she said in her statement. ‘‘I got scared and thought I was having a bad reaction or something.’’
That’s when, she reported, Cosby told her to lie down on the couch and began touching her. Despite her condition, Constand told investigators that she was aware she was being fondled and digitally penetrated.
‘‘I was unable to speak. I was like paralysed,’’ she recounted.
Though she did not tell Cosby to stop, prosecutors said that the drugs – the type of which have not been confirmed – rendered her unable to give consent.
Cosby’s own statement, also discussed during the hearing, confirmed some of those details. But he said he told Constand’s mother there was ‘‘no penile penetration’’.
‘‘I never intended to have sexual intercourse,’’ he said, adding that they were kissing and petting while fully clothed. ‘‘I enjoyed it.’’