Cosby charged with sex assault at his mansion
US comedian faces court for first time after years of fighting claims
COMEDIAN Bill Cosby has been charged with drugging and sexually assaulting a woman at his mansion.
It is the first time the US television star has been charged with an offence – though there have been scores of accusations of sexual assault against him in recent months.
Cosby, 78, is accused of attacking Andrea Constand, now 42, at his mansion in 2004. He could face ten years in jail if found guilty.
Cosby, most famous for his wholesome 1980s family sitcom The Cosby Show, appeared in court in Philadelphia yesterday and was released on a $1million (£675,000) bail after a five-minute hearing.
Prosecutors said Miss Constand had been left ‘frozen, paralysed and unable to move’ after Cosby gave her pills and forced himself on her.
At the time of the alleged offence, she was director of operations at the women’s basketball team at Temple University in Philadelphia.
Cosby – who has been married since 1964 – was on the university’s board and became Miss Constand’s ‘mentor’ and invited her to his mansion for dinner three times, allegedly touching her inappropriately on her first two visits.
On the third occasion, in January or February 2004, Miss Constand claims Cosby gave her wine and three blue pills. The criminal complaint states that Cosby told her: ‘These will make you feel good. The blue ones take the edge off.’
Miss Constand claims she asked Cosby if the pills were herbal, and was told: ‘Yes. Down them. Put them in your mouth.’ Within 20 minutes she claims she had ‘blurred vision and difficulty speaking’. She allegedly ‘lost all strength’ in her legs, which felt like ‘jelly’. The complaint said: ‘She could not keep her eyes open, was not aware of any sounds, had no sense of time.’
But Miss Constand alleges that, despite her impaired state, she was aware of Cosby sexually assaulting her. The criminal complaint said: ‘The victim told investigators she did not consent to any of these actions and was unable to speak or move during the assault.’ According to the complaint, Miss Constand woke at 4am the next day with her bra undone. Cosby is said to have given her a blueberry muffin as she left and told her: ‘All right’.
She is said to have become withdrawn and suffered nightmares before going to police, but no charges were brought.
In his police interview at the time, Cosby admitted giving Miss Constand pills but claimed they were cold medicine Benadryl. He said it was a ‘consensual sexual encounter’. The complaint says that in a phone call with her mother, Cosby apologised and offered to pay for therapy and school tuition.
More than 50 women have accused Cosby of being a predatory abuser of young women from the 1960s onwards. He vehemently denies the allegations. Prosecutors said yesterday this case was reopened after evidence came to light in July.
Kevin Steele, first assistant district attorney for Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, said: ‘The evidence is strong and sufficient to proceed.’ The new evidence is a deposition Cosby gave in 2005 during the original investigation, which was unsealed in July. In it Cosby admits drugging women using Quaaludes, a powerful sedative.
In the deposition Dolores Troiani, who represents Miss Constand, asked Cosby: ‘When you got the Quaaludes, was it in your mind you were going to use these for young women you wanted to have sex with?’ Cosby replied: ‘Yes.’
In court yesterday Cosby, who did not enter a plea, appeared bewildered and frail.