Prosecutors on Thursday read into the record his decade-old testimony about what he said were several sexual encounters with Andrea Constand that culminated in him giving her pills and then reaching into her trousers.
Bill Cosby still has no intention of testifying in the ongoing sexual assault trial against him, but the court got pretty close to hearing Cosby's side of the story today thanks to a deposition he gave to the police in 2005 after the incident allegedly occurred. Cosby eventually settled the lawsuit for an undisclosed sum, and his deposition was sealed for years, until a judge released parts in 2015 at the request of The Associated Press. "And then I stopped, and I went up to bed".
She says the pills incapacitated her, and while she could not move or tell him to stop, he sexually assaulted her. Cosby, however, said in that deposition that he had only given her the pills to help her "relax".
Police sergeant Richard Schaffer of the Cheltenham Township Police Department interviewed Cosby in NY in 2005 about the incident, which occurred in his jurisdiction at Cosby's house just outside Philadelphia.
Schaffer's testimony could blunt efforts by Cosby's lawyers to exploit the fact that Castor saw no case.
A portion of the testimony was read aloud by a detective Thursday, with more expected Friday, including Cosby talking about giving quaaludes and alcohol to women he wanted to have sex with. If found guilty by the jury of seven men and five women for three felony charges of second-degree aggravated indecent assault, the actor could face more than 10 years behind bars.
Cosby, however, recounted for police what he described as a consensual sexual encounter.
The lawyer in the deposition then asked Cosby if he ever asked for permission.
He says accuser Andrea Constand's open, easygoing personality changed drastically in early 2004, and that her March 2004 departure from her job with Temple University's women's basketball team seemed abrupt.
The January 2005 interview with police was conducted at his lawyer's offices in NY about a year after the alleged assault. In the interview, Cosby admitted that there was "petting" between Constand and himself, but that it was consensual, and that he himself chose to end it. "I like the petting, the touching", Cosby said.
Defense Lawyer Attacks Bill Cosby Accuser Andrea Constand for Alleged Inconsistencies
Sewell said they didn't go to police at the time because her husband, a Los Angeles detective, feared the ordeal that would ensue. Cosby, after listening to Constand testify for almost four hours, struck a light-hearted note as he left the courthouse.
She denied they had a romantic relationship and said she had rebuffed his previous sexual advances.
Defense lawyer Angela Agrusa zeroed in on statements Constand gave to police in early 2005.
Bill Cosby walks from the Montgomery County Courthouse during his sexual assault trial in Norristown, Pa., Thursday, June 8, 2017.
Jurors also listened Thursday to a police detective read Cosby's testimony in a lengthy 2005 police interview report.
These documents were under seal but came out, briefly, after related court records were made public, before swiftly being put under a seal by Cosby's legal team.
Constand's civil attorney, Dolores Troiani, told NBC News that while she had not seen the defense motion, she was "appalled" by what she read of it in the prosecution's response.
The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they grant permission, which Constand has done.
Constand's mother, Gianna, also testified.
The defense grilled Andrea Constand earlier on Wednesday for almost five hours, focusing on inconsistencies in her past testimony, on which much of the case rests in what experts say will boil down to her word against his.
At one point, the legendary comedian said he had a romantic relationship with the accuser.
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