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Bill Cosby Jurors Hear Andrea Constand Say ‘I Trusted Him’ Bill Cosby Trial Day 2: Jurors Hear Andrea Constand Say ‘I Trusted Him’
(about 2 hours later)
• On Day 2 of the criminal trial of Bill Cosby, the complainant, Andrea Constand, a former Temple University employee, took the stand to testify tearfully about the night in 2004 when she says he drugged and sexually assaulted her at his home outside Philadelphia. • On the second day of the criminal trial of Bill Cosby, the complainant, Andrea Constand, a former Temple University employee, testifed tearfully about the night in 2004 when she says he drugged and sexually assaulted her at his home outside Philadelphia.
• Ms. Constand told prosecutors in Norristown, Pa., that she had trusted Mr. Cosby and kept in contact with him even after the incident because he was a powerful trustee at the university where she worked.• Ms. Constand told prosecutors in Norristown, Pa., that she had trusted Mr. Cosby and kept in contact with him even after the incident because he was a powerful trustee at the university where she worked.
• Mr. Cosby has said the sex was consensual and his lawyers aggressively challenged her credibility during cross examination.• Mr. Cosby has said the sex was consensual and his lawyers aggressively challenged her credibility during cross examination.
• Earlier Tuesday, the prosecution called two 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.• Earlier Tuesday, the prosecution called two 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.
• One witness was Ms. Johnson’s mother and the other was a lawyer who both said Ms. Johnson had described an attack to them.• One witness was Ms. Johnson’s mother and the other was a lawyer who both said Ms. Johnson had described an attack to them.
She spoke of the beginnings of their friendship. She described what she said was a sexual assault at his home. And then she spoke of why she had kept in subsequent contact with him: He was a powerful trustee of the university where she worked. Facing Mr. Cosby for the first time in 12 years, she cried as she testified that after she rebuffed his sexual advances, this man she had admired and looked to for guidance drugged and sexually assaulted her.
It was the first time for more than a decade that she and Mr. Cosby had faced each other, the last time being a civil suit in Philadelphia that she filed in 2005 when prosecutors first declined to press charges. It ended in a financial settlement. Ms. Constand, the crucial witness at the criminal trial of Mr. Cosby, told a jury that in early 2004, when she was 30 years old and he was 66, he invited her to his home near Philadelphia, where he handed her three blue pills and wine to wash them down.
Ms. Constand was resolute in her demeanor on the stand, describing two advances she said Mr. Cosby made prior to the night in question: Once he touched her thigh, another time he tried to unbutton her pants. But she described him as an older man, one who she viewed as a mentor and who she had no reason to think would push it further. “He said ‘These will help you relax,’” she said. “‘They are your friends. They will take the edge off.’”
“He was a Temple friend, somebody I trusted as a mentor, and somewhat of an older figure to me,” she said. “I trusted him.” Her voice catching and her eyes tearing, Ms. Constand said she took the pills and then felt disoriented, telling Mr. Cosby, “I see two of you,” before losing consciousness.
Then, crying, she recounted the night when she says Mr. Cosby drugged her, coming forward with three blue pills. “He said these will help you relax,” she testified. “He said put them down. They are your friends. They will take the edge off.” “I was jolted awake and I felt Mr. Cosby’s hand groping my breasts under my shirt,” she said. “I also felt his hand inside my vagina moving in and out, and I felt him take my hand and place it on his penis and move it back and forth.”
He offered her wine, her vision began to blur and she couldn’t walk, she said. But on cross-examination, a lawyer for Mr. Cosby hammered at inconsistencies in Ms. Constand’s statements over the years — about how she met him, how long they had known each other, how much time they spent together, and whether she stayed in touch with him after the incident.
“I said, ‘I see two of you,’ ” she said. And the lawyer, Angela C. Agrusa, suggested that it was Ms. Constand, with an ulterior motive, who cultivated the relationship. “You were befriending him because he was going to be able to give you some resources to get into broadcasting,” she said.
After he helped her to a couch, she lost consciousness and awoke in a jolt, she said. “I felt Mr. Cosby’s hand,” she said “groping my breasts under my shirt. I also felt his hand inside my vagina moving in and out and I felt him take my hand and place it in his penis and move it back and forth.” Ms. Agrusa noted that, on the day Ms. Constand filed a complaint with the police, she had first called a lawyer. Ms. Constand answered by saying she feared that Mr. Cosby would hurt her. “I felt that if I had gone to the police that Mr. Cosby would retaliate and try to hurt me,” she said, “that he would try to hurt me or my family in some way.”
Mr. Cosby sat forward as she testified, frowning at times when she spoke and holding his hand against his head. On Monday, the defense had described Ms. Constand’s depiction of the evening as a fabrication and pointed to evidence that it said established she sought to continue the relationship — 53 phone calls the defense said she had placed to him after the night in question. Ms. Constand took the witness stand on the second day of the trial at the Montgomery County Courthouse, carrying the expectations of dozens of women who have accused Mr. Cosby of sexual assault, many of whom tell stories similar to her own. While there have been multiple civil lawsuits, none of the other allegations has led to prosecution, in many cases because too many years had passed, leaving Ms. Constand’s case as the only one that could render a criminal verdict on Mr. Cosby.
She said she continued to keep in contact with him in the following months when he called the office. Mr. Cosby, who frowned as Ms. Constand testified and held his hand against his head, has said that what he gave her that night was Benadryl and that their sexual contact was consensual. He has admitted in a lawsuit deposition to giving women quaaludes in order to have sex with them, but his lawyers have said it was not to incapacitate and take advantage of them.
“I didn’t not want to call Mr. Cosby back because I thought it would look negative on me,” she said. “I didn’t want to stir up any trouble.” He stands accused of three counts of aggravated indecent assault against Ms. Constand, each punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Later she would go with her family to see Mr. Cosby perform near their home outside Toronto. Her mother took Mr. Cosby a T-shirt to say thank you for the tickets. She said her father really wanted to go and she didn’t want to disappoint them. Ms. Constand, who had never spoken publicly about her account before, spent nearly four grueling hours on the witness stand Tuesday, with more cross-examination to come on Wednesday.
“It was a very big burden on me,” she said, “but one I did not have the courage at the time to tell my family and so I just went along with them.” The defense team, insisting that no assault took place, focused on attacking Ms. Constand’s credibility, in part by noting how willing she was to have repeated contact with the man she says violated her. In opening arguments, they revealed that phone records would show that she called Mr. Cosby at least 53 times after that night at his home.
Ms. Constand described her decision to come forward after a year, saying she had a nightmare and finally told her mother. The prosecution earlier on Tuesday had called one of the officers who first interviewed Ms. Constand in 2005, Detective David Mason of the Durham Regional Police, and he recounted what Ms. Constand told him, a story largely consistent with the accounts she has given. But under cross-examination by the defense, the detective confirmed that Ms. Constand had told him she had never been alone with Mr. Cosby before the incident, and that she had little contact with him afterward — points that conflict with her later accounts.
Her mother called Mr. Cosby, who called back, and they both confronted him. He apologized and said he thought Ms. Constand had had an “orgasm.” He seemed unable to tell them what drug he had given Ms. Constand, saying he was unable to read the prescription bottle. Ms. Agrusa later produced the police statement that had resulted from that interview with Ms. Constand and asked Ms. Constand about the discrepancies.
“I began to worry it was something other than herbal or natural,” Ms. Constand said. Asked by Ms. Agrusa how many times they spoke after the incident, Ms. Constand said: “I don’t know exactly. But yes, there were calls.”
Representatives of Mr. Cosby then called the Constands and offered her money for her education and other benefits, according to taped phone messages played by prosecutors in court. Ms. Johnson, the first witness, testified that in 1996, Mr. Cosby had drugged and abused her under circumstances similar to that described by Ms. Constand. Prosecutors had wanted to present other accusers but Judge Steven T. O’Neill allowed just one. On Tuesday, they called two more witnesses to support Ms. Johnson’s account, her mother and a lawyer who said she told him about the alleged assault in 1996.
In one instance, the lawyer, Angela C. Agrusa, confronted Ms. Constand with her statement to Canadian police, in which she incorrectly said that she had never been alone with Mr. Cosby before the night in question, and that the incident had happened after a Chinese dinner with him. Ms. Constand cut a striking figure — a former basketball star, she stands six feet tall, and has a mass of dark curly hair. She testified about befriending Mr. Cosby when she worked for the university’s athletic department, and told of being invited to his home for dinner parties.
“I was mistaken,” Ms. Constand said about the dinner. The first time she was alone there with him, she said, he put a hand on her thigh. The second time, she said, he tried to unbutton her pants but she stopped him. She had no interest in him sexually, she said, yet there was no question of cutting off contact with Mr. Cosby, then a prominent member of the university’s board of trustees.
Ms. Agrusa also produced billing records for phone calls to show that Ms. Constand had called lawyers before she went to police and suggesting that she had gone along with the romantic inclinations of the older man because it suited her larger goals. “I trusted him.” she said. “He was a Temple friend, somebody I trusted as a mentor.”
“You were befriending him because he was going to be able to give you some resources to get into broadcasting,” Ms. Agrusa said. Her third time alone with him at his home, she said, he assaulted her. She remained in touch with him because “I thought it would look negative on me” to do otherwise, she said. “I didn’t want to stir up any trouble.” She has also said that some of her contacts with him were attempts to confront him.
Ms. Constand said she thought their friendship would benefit Temple. Shortly after the incident, she moved back to Ontario, Canada. At first she said nothing to her family. Months later, she took them to see Mr. Cosby perform near Toronto — an act that his lawyers have suggested was not the behavior of a victim toward her abuser.
As for the call to the lawyer, Ms. Constand said she feared that Mr. Cosby would hurt her. “I felt that if I had gone to the police that Mr. Cosby would retaliate and try to hurt me,” she said, “that he would try to hurt me or my family in some way.” “It was a very big burden on me but one I did not have the courage at the time to tell my family” about the assault, Ms. Constand testified on Tuesday. “And so I just went along with them.”
Prosecutors had to decide whether to introduce Ms. Constand first or rather wait to present other key evidence — the 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 but has said any drug-taking, like the sex, was consensual. Finally, in January 2005, she told family members about the incident and called the police in Canada. She testified that her mother confronted Mr. Cosby over the phone, and he apologized, said he was not sure what pills he had given her, and added that he thought Ms. Constand had had an orgasm from their encounter.
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. They had called the Constands’ home soon after, including one from a lawyer saying he wanted to discuss creating an education fund for Ms. Constand.
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. After her testimony, one of the lawyers who represent Ms. Constand said that she thought her client had fared well in her time on the stand.
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. “She maintained her composure throughout,” said the lawyer, Dolores M. Troiani. “This is a very difficult thing to do.”
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.
“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 her to fondle him and she didn’t want to do that.”
Detective David Mason, of the Durham Regional Police near Toronto, said he spoke with Ms. Constand, who had left Temple and moved home to Canada, in January 2005. He said she had recounted the 2004 incident in Pennsylvania that is the subject of the criminal complaint, telling the detective that Mr. Cosby had given her what he described as herbal pills.
“She started feeling dizzy and her legs were feeling jelly,” he said she told him, and she remembered Mr. Cosby lying next to her, touching her breast, placing her hand on his penis. She did not recall having intercourse, she said, but “she said she could tell that something foreign was in her body.”
Mr. Cosby has acknowledged the encounter, and said that the pills were Benadryl.
Under cross-examination by Mr. McMonagle, the detective said Ms. Constand told him she had never been alone with Mr. Cosby before that night, and rarely had contact with him afterward, both points the defense has disputed.
The hearing transcript released Tuesday indicated that during jury selection, Mr. Cosby’s lawyers had asked for a postponement so that a more racially diverse jury could be found. At that point, five of the 12 jurors had been selected and none was black.
“We fear that there is a distinct possibility that there won’t be any diversity whatsoever on this jury in a case in which an African-American is charged with a sexual assault on a Caucasian,” Mr. Cosby’s lawyer, Mr. McMonagle, said at a hearing.
But Judge O’Neill denied the motion seeking the postponement, and jurors were selected from Allegheny County, far west of the Philadelphia suburbs where the trial is unfolding, so as to avoid any taint of pretrial publicity. Some 13 percent of the county’s residents are black, according to United States census data.
“As we continue to select, we should be in a position where we could select a diverse group of Pittsburgh and Allegheny citizens who might be able to render an impartial verdict,” he said.
The jury ultimately selected includes two blacks and 10 whites.