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Bill Cosby Trial Awaits Andrea Constand’s Appearance Bill Cosby Trial Awaits Andrea Constand’s Appearance
(about 2 hours later)
• Day 2 of the criminal trial of Bill Cosby opened Tuesday and the focus is expected to center on the accusations made by the complainant, Andrea Constand, a former Temple University employee who says he drugged and sexually assaulted her at his home outside Philadelphia. • Day 2 of the criminal trial of Bill Cosby opened on Tuesday and the focus is expected to center on the accusations made by the complainant, Andrea Constand, a former Temple University employee who says he drugged and sexually assaulted her at his home outside Philadelphia.
• When Ms. Constand will testify remains unclear, but the defense made it apparent Monday that its cross-examination of her will be an aggressive effort to undermine her credibility. • When Ms. Constand will testify remains unclear, but the defense made it apparent Monday that its cross-examination of her would be an aggressive effort to undermine her credibility.
• The opening witness for the prosecution on Monday was something of a surprise — a woman, Kelly Johnson, who said Mr. Cosby had also drugged and sexually assaulted her in 1996. • On Tuesday, the prosecution began the day by calling two new witnesses to testify in support of Kelly Johnson, a woman who on Monday said that Mr. Cosby had also drugged and sexually assaulted her in 1996.
• The defense also spoke in its opening statement of previously undisclosed telephone records that show Ms. Constand called Mr. Cosby 53 times, some calls lasting half an hour or more, after the incident in 2004 at his home in Cheltenham. • One witness was Ms. Johnson’s mother and the other was a lawyer who once represented her, and both said Ms. Johnson had described an attack to them.
After the decision by prosecutors to put a second accuser, Kelly Johnson, on the stand on Monday, they must now decide when to introduce Ms. Constand herself and other key evidence — deposition testimony by Mr. Cosby in 2005 when he admitted to obtaining quaaludes to have sex with women. Ms. Johnson’s account was known — she had come forward in 2015 — but many had thought she would testify after Ms. Constand, not before. • Mr. Cosby, who denies misconduct with either woman, is not on trial for any conduct related to Ms. Johnson. Her testimony Monday was intended to show that he has a pattern of drugging and assaulting women.
Brian J. McMonagle, Mr. Cosby’s lawyer, tried to discredit Ms. Johnson’s account, in which she said Mr. Cosby, a client of her boss, an agent at the William Morris Agency in Los Angeles, had given her a large white pill and then sexually assaulted her. Her complaint, which Mr. Cosby denies, did not surface until 2015 because — Ms. Johnson testified — she was afraid to come forward. Prosecutors must now decide when to introduce Ms. Constand herself and other key evidence — deposition testimony by Mr. Cosby in 2005 when he admitted to obtaining quaaludes to have sex with women. Mr. Cosby has said he would not testify.
The prosecution is looking to introduce two new witnesses, who could take the stand early Tuesday. They are Ms. Johnson’s mother, and a lawyer from the time Ms. Johnson was working for William Morris. It is not clear what they might talk about, though prosecutors always like to present corroborating evidence, which might include people who heard Ms. Johnson complain about Mr. Cosby many years ago. She said Mr. Cosby, a client of her boss, an agent at the William Morris Agency in Los Angeles, had given her a large white pill and then sexually assaulted her. Her complaint did not surface until 2015 because, Ms. Johnson testified, she was afraid to come forward.
The prosecution also plans to call a drugs expert and an expert on the behavior of sexual assault victims, although it is not clear when they will appear. But Brian J. McMonagle, Mr. Cosby’s lawyer, told the jury on Monday that when Ms. Johnson complained to human resources at the agency and later, when she filed a workers’ compensation claim, she never made any accusation that Mr. Cosby had assaulted her. “At no time was she forced to have sex and when she said no, he said O.K.,” Mr. McMonagle said.
Some of the other people who have accused Mr. Cosby of sexual assault, Therese Serignese, Victoria Valentino and Lili Bernard, were in the courthouse on Monday. They said they would return on Tuesday. But Judge Steven T. O’Neill agreed to allow the testimony of Ms. Johnson’s mother, Pattrice Sewell, and Joseph Miller, a lawyer from the time Ms. Johnson worked for William Morris.
Ms. Bernard, one of more than 40 women who say they were sexually assaulted by Mr. Cosby, said she cried at times when she heard Ms. Johnson’s testimony. Ms. Sewell said that Mr. Cosby and her daughter had been friends, and that just as Mr. Cosby had invited Ms. Constand’s family to a show, he had invited Ms. Johnson and her family to a show in Las Vegas.
“The reason I cried was that when she was describing the impact of the drugging, I related to it,” Ms. Bernard told reporters outside the court. “The things which I was hearing her speak of were similar symptoms that I endured from the drugging.” “She was very proud to introduce her family to Mr. Cosby,” Ms. Sewell said from the stand. “We admired him.”
But then Ms. Sewell described what she said her daughter later told her about a 1996 incident at a hotel in California where, Ms. Johnson says, Mr. Cosby drugged and assaulted her.
She said her daughter told her: “He said she should take this pill. It would calm her down.”
Ms. Johnson testified on Monday that the pill made her feel as if she were underwater, and that she later awoke and Mr. Cosby made her touch his penis.
Ms. Sewell said her daughter became depressed, turned inward and later left the agency.
The defense said Ms. Johnson left the agency, not because of Mr. Cosby, but because she was confronted by the agency for having a relationship with another client with whom she had ultimately had a child.
Mr. Miller, the lawyer who spoke with Ms. Johnson when she made a workers’ compensation claim, said she had told him about the incident at the hotel.
“He had taken out his penis,” the lawyer said, relating Ms. Johnson’s account, “and had put lubricant on his penis and had wanted him to fondle him and she didn’t want to do that.”