Detective in Cosby case: 2005 probe closed down abruptly
NORRISTOWN, Pa. — The detective who in 2005 investigated Andrea Constand’s sexual assault claims against Bill Cosby testified Thursday that Montgomery County’s chief prosecutor at the time abruptly announced he would not pursue charges against the 79-yearold entertainer.
Cheltenham Police Sgt. Richard Schaffer said he and other detectives had actually just met to discuss “investigative leads and where we were going” when they learned hours later that then-District Attorney Bruce L. Castor Jr. was publicly declaring the matter closed.
Assistant District Attorney M. Stewart Ryan didn’t ask the detective to elaborate.
But Schaffer’s testimony, at the open of the trial’s fourth day in Norristown, suggested detectives were caught off guard by Castor’s decision to shut down the probe into Constand’s claim that Cosby drugged and molested her at his home a year earlier.
Castor, who has been mentioned by Cosby’s defense as a potential witness, has previously cited concerns about Constand’s credibility as the reason he decided the case wouldn’t hold up in court. He also said he thought closing the criminal investigation would help Constand in her civil lawsuit against Cosby because it would free him up to be deposed.
Cosby was charged with aggravated indecent assault in 2015, after then-District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman reopened the 2005 investigation.
Taking the stand Thursday, Schaffer told jurors he had been assigned to investigate Constand’s claims in January 2005, a year after the alleged attack.
“She seemed anxious to me, a little bit nervous,” Schaffer said of his first phone call with the then-operations manager for Temple University’s women’s basketball program. “And I think the overriding thing was that she seemed like she wanted to get her whole story out.”
Constand did not share her full story with police until days later, when she traveled from her home in Ontario, Canada, to Montgomery County to meet with police.
On their cross-examination of the detective Thursday, Cosby’s lawyers returned to a theme they’ve pounded during the trial: inconsistencies and changes in her statements to police.