The Trial of Bill Cosby: Week One

It’s been nearly two years since the tidal wave of accusers began to come out against disgraced comedian and actor Bill Cosby, and now the entertainer has had to face a select few of them in court. On Monday, Cosby walked into a Montgomery County courthouse, without his wife Camille, but instead flanked by his Cosby Show daughter, Keshia Knight Pulliam, to defend himself against the claims of former Temple University employee Andrea Constand.

Constand took the stand against Cosby on Tuesday and gave, for the first time in public, the details of her encounter with the comic. In 2004, Constand was visiting Cosby at his Philadelphia home when the comic offered her some pills, which he implied were Benadryl, to help her relax. Constand alleges that the pills instead paralyzed her and made her unable to move or communicate, after which time Cosby began to fondle and digitally penetrate her. Constand alleges that she then fell asleep, waking up hours later with her clothes scattered across the room and little recollection of what happened. Constand’s testimony was delivered during seven hours of questioning over a two day period, during which time she remained cool and collected and Cosby remained nearly inanimate in his seat.

Cosby’s defense team tried to poke holes in Constand’s story throughout the week, alleging that the encounter in question was consensual, and that the two had a romantic relationship leading up to the event, which Constand and her team vehemently denied. The defense cited the fact that Constand had called Cosby 53 times in the months after the alleged assault, which Constand’s team argued was a result of Constand performing her job as Temple University’s director of operations for the women’s basketball team, where Cosby is on the board of trustees.

Constand stuck to her story, and combined with the testimony of an additional accuser who allegedly suffered a similar assault, and a stable of expert witnesses, didn’t give Cosby’s defense much room to work with.

What’s more, the prosecution played for the court a recording of a phone call between Constand’s mother, Gianna, and Cosby, in which Cosby is heard offering to pay for Constand’s graduate schooling, seemingly as a bribe to keep quiet. Gianna Constand testified right after her daughter, alleging that during a previous phone call with Cosby, the comic “surrendered” to her about the assault and claimed that he “was sick.” The defense argued that Cosby’s apology to Gianna Constand wasn’t an admittance of assault, but rather an effort to make the consensual relationship between himself and Andrea look less like one between a young woman and “a dirty old man.”

That apology, along with some other damning statements from Cosby, were revealed to the court right at the end of the prosecution’s case on Friday, when Constand’s team revealed some of the details from the original 2005 deposition of Cosby. During questioning at that time, Cosby admitted to acquiring Quaaludes for the express purpose of using them to initiate sexual encounters.

“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 in the deposition.

“Yes,” he said.

In the deposition, Cosby admitted that he had no medical use for the Quaaludes, which he acquired from a gynecologist friend, and also admitted to knowing that it was illegal to distribute the drugs to anyone else.

Next week, Cosby’s defense team will be tasked with proving that Cosby and Constand’s relationship was consensual, or at least proving that there’s not enough evidence to suggest that Cosby intentionally drugged and assaulted Constand. While it was initially stated that Cosby would not be taking the stand, Cosby spokesman Andrew Wyatt floated the possibility on Friday that the comic may testify after all. Doing so would be a huge risk for Cosby, so we’ll have to wait and see.

For more information on the Cosby trial, stay tuned to The IBang, as proceedings pick back up on Monday.

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Bill Tressler

Bill is a writer and comedy enthusiast from New York. An avid gamer and podcast fan, he strives to always toe the line between charming irreverence and grating honesty.
Bill Tressler
Bill Tressler
Bill is a writer and comedy enthusiast from New York. An avid gamer and podcast fan, he strives to always toe the line between charming irreverence and grating honesty.