2005 Cosby deposition could bolster accusers
Comedian admits giving Quaaludes to women before sex.
PHILADELPHIA — Bill Cosby’s admission that he obtained quaaludes to give young women before sex could bolster criminal and civil claims being pursued by his accusers, their lawyers said after The Associated Press reported on newly released court documents.
Cosby, in sworn testimony unsealed Monday, admitted that he gave the now-banned sedative to a 19-year-old woman before they had sex in Las Vegas in the 1970s. He also admitted giving the powerful drug to unnamed others.
His lawyer intervened before he could answer deposition questions in 2005 about how many women were given drugs and whether they knew about it.
“So this confirms the suspicions, and also the allegations, of many other women who allege that they are victims of Bill Cosby, and who have suspected that he used a drug — quaaludes or perhaps some other drug — in order to take advantage of them,” said lawyer Gloria Allred, commenting on her understanding of the court documents.
She represents several Cosby accusers, including a woman who said Cosby molested her at the Playboy Mansion when she was 15.
Allred has been pursuing potential criminal charges in California on that woman’s behalf, while Cosby’s lawyers have been fighting the effort, she said.
The AP had gone to court to compel the release of a deposition in a 2005 sexual abuse lawsuit filed by former Temple University basketball team employee Andrea Constand — the first of a cascade of lawsuits against Cosby that have severely damaged his image as doting TV dad Dr. Cliff Huxtable on “The Cosby Show.”
A judge cited Cosby’s public moralizing as he unsealed portions of the deposition.
“The stark contrast between Bill Cosby, the public moralist and Bill Cosby, the subject of serious allegations concerning improper (and perhaps criminal) conduct, is a matter as to which the AP — and by extension the public — has a significant interest,” U.S. District Judge Eduardo Robreno wrote.
Cosby, 77, has been accused by more than two dozen women of sexual misconduct dating back decades. He has never been charged with a crime, and the statute of limitations on most of the accusations has expired.
Nevertheless, attorneys for some of the women suing Cosby seized on the testimony as corroboration of their accusations.
“The women have been saying they ’ve been drugged and abused, and these documents appear to support the allegations,” said lawyer Joe Cammarata, who represents Therese Serignese, who said she was sexually assaulted by Cosby. She is one of three women now suing him for defamation.
Cosby, giving sworn testimony in the lawsuit accusing him of sexually assaulting Constand in 2004, said he had obtained seven quaalude prescriptions in the 1970s.
“Was it in your mind that you were going to use these quaaludes for young women that you wanted to have sex with?” Constand’s lawyer, Dolores Troiani, asked. “Yes,” Cosby answered. “Did you ever give any of these young women the quaaludes without their knowledge?”
But Cosby’s lawyer objected, leading Troiani to petition the federal judge to force Cosby to cooperate.
Cosby later said he gave Constand three half-pills of Benadryl. In her lawsuit, Constand recalls sexual contact, and woke up to find her clothes askew, according to her lawsuit. Cosby called any contact consensual, according to Troiani’s summary of his deposition testimony.
Cosby had fought the AP’s efforts to unseal the testimony, a fact the judge questioned, given that the accusations in the Constand suit were public.
“Why would he be embarrassed by his own version of the facts?” Robreno said.