Jury to hear more Cosby
NORRISTOWN — Jurors at Bill Cosby's sexual assault trial have heard excerpts from the comedian's lurid, decade-old deposition, but explosive sections about him obtaining Quaaludes and giving them to women before sex are yet to come.
Prosecutors today are expected to continue focusing on Cosby's testimony, giving jurors a look at his view of women, sex and the night in January 2004 that Andrea Constand says he drugged and violated her at his suburban Philadelphia home.
The 79-year-old Cosby has said he will not testify, giving his deposition from Constand's civil lawsuit and a prior police interview added weight as jurors consider charges that could put him in prison for the rest of his life.
A detective Thursday read portions of the deposition covering what Cosby described as several sexual encounters with Constand, including one before the alleged assault where he said he found himself “somewhere between permission and rejection.”
Today's excerpts are expected to include an exchange where Cosby, once known as America's Dad, acknowledges using Quaaludes in his pursuit of women for sex.
“When you got the Quaaludes, was it in your mind that you were going to use these Quaaludes for young women that you wanted to have sex with?” Cosby was asked.
“Yes,” he replied.
Cosby testified in 2005 and 2006 as part of a lawsuit brought against him by Constand, the former director of women's basketball operations at his alma mater, Temple University.
Constand testified this week she rejected Cosby's advances and would have fought him off again had the pills not left her paralyzed and semi-conscious.
He has said the sexual encounter was consensual.
Cosby eventually settled with Constand for an undisclosed sum, and his deposition was sealed for years, until a judge released parts of it in 2015 at the request of The Associated Press.
A detective said Thursday the investigation was reopened just seven days after the deposition excerpts were unsealed.
Constand, 44, testified that Cosby penetrated her with his fingers against her will after giving her pills that left her so limp that she was unable to push him away or tell him to stop.
In the deposition, Cosby said he gave Constand three half-tablets of the cold and allergy medicine Benadryl before the “petting” began.
