Cosby accuser ‘visited and called comedian’s home’
BILL COSBY’S chief accuser spent late nights at the comedian’s home, drove four hours to see him at a casino and called him twice on Valentine’s Day, about a month after she claims he drugged and sexually assaulted her, jurors have learned.
Andrea Constand took the witness stand for a second day and said under cross-examination that her phone calls to Cosby were about basketball and had nothing to do with romance.
Ms Constand, 45, testified last week that Cosby knocked her out with pills and then sexually assaulted her at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004. Cosby, 80, said Ms Constand consented to a sexual encounter. His first trial last year ended with a hung jury.
The defence is trying to cast Ms Constand as an unrequited lover who acted inappropriately by showing interest in the long-married Cosby. She has testified she had no romantic interest in him.
Phone records show Ms Constand, the former director of women’s basketball operations at Temple University, made brief calls to Cosby around the time of a Temple home game on February 14, 2004, the month after the alleged assault. “You think you called Mr Cosby to talk about basketball?” Cosby’s defence asked her. Ms Constand, who has granted permission to be identified in the case, testified that she felt a duty to answer Cosby’s inquiries since he was a powerful alumnus.
Picking up where he left off on Friday, Thomas Mesereau, for Cosby, questioned Ms Constand about inconsistencies in her police statements and prior testimony.
Mr Mesereau said Ms Constand told police in 2005 that she called Cosby from her universityissued mobile phone just before she arrived at his house on the night of the alleged assault to ensure the gate would be open.
But Ms Constand’s phone records show she did not make any calls to Cosby’s mansion that month. Ms Constand explained that she may have been mistaken, that there were times Cosby told her in advance that the gate would be open and that she often reached him at another number.