Andrea Constand, the key witness in Bill Cosby’s retrial on indecent assault charges, is expected to retake the stand when court resumes Monday.
Constand began her testimony Friday, outlining the relationship she had with Cosby through Temple University and detailing his alleged sexual assault on her in 2004.
Cosby, 80, has said their sex was consensual, and has pleaded not guilty to three charges of aggravated indecent assault. His first trial on the charges ended last year in a mistrial after a Pennsylvania jury couldn’t come to a unanimous decision.
Several other women told jurors last week they believe Cosby drugged and molested them. Their stories aimed to bolster prosecutors’ argument that Cosby’s attack on Constand wasn’t a singular error but part of a pattern of misbehavior.
Constand ‘humiliated’
Constand testified Friday that she drank wine and took three blue pills at Cosby’s urging in January 2004, then lost consciousness and, sometime later, was “jolted awake” to find the entertainer sexually assaulting her.
She told the court in Norristown, Pennsylvania, that the alleged incident had left her “humiliated,” in shock and “really confused.”
Constand said prior to the alleged assault she had considered Cosby a mentor from whom she sought career advice.
She also acknowledged that Cosby paid her $3.38 million as part of a related civil settlement.
The defense
Cosby’s defense attorneys argued last week that Constand was a con artist obsessed with Cosby’s fame and money.
Cosby defense attorney Tom Mesereau began his cross-examination of Constand by asking her about inconsistencies in her statements to police about the alleged assault.
The lawyer also questioned Constand about her job at Temple and whether she had complained about the pay and tried to make additional money through other sources.
Other women describe ‘prior bad acts’
Constand is Cosby’s chief accuser in a case that lacks virtually any forensic evidence. Prosecutors in his retrial were allowed to seek testimony from as many as five other women who claim Cosby also drugged and assaulted them.
Among the “prior bad acts” witnesses was TV star and supermodel Janice Dickinson, who testified Thursday that she confronted Cosby and wanted to strike him after she said he drugged her and raped her in 1982 at a hotel in Lake Tahoe.
Heidi Thomas, Chelan Lasha, Janice Baker-Kinney and Lise-Lotte Lublin each testified last week that Cosby incapacitated them with drugs or wine and then assaulted them in separate incidents decades ago.
Cosby’s defense attorneys have worked to point out inconsistencies in their stories.
