Bill Cosby accuser Andrea Constand begins hours of testimony: 'I trusted him'

Cosby lawyers challenge Constand on different versions of her story over the years as sexual assault trial continues

Dozens of women have accused Bill Cosby of sexual assault, but only one of them, Andrea Constand, might send him to prison with the power of her testimony.

Over hours of testimony that will stretch into Wednesday, Constand recounted how Cosby became her mentor and her friend.

Cosby, at the time, was a university trustee, a donor, and its most famous alumnus. Contand, who was originally from Canada, had not lived in Philadelphia long. And in Cosby, she said, she felt she had found someone eager to introduce her to a new community.

Constand also recalled moments when Cosby acted strangely or touched her inappropriately – and she recounted her reasons for brushing it off: “I trusted him.”

Then, stone-faced and through bouts of tears, Constand told the jury in a Montgomery County courtroom that Cosby had deceived her into taking three blue pills that knocked her unconscious.

“At some point later, I was jolted conscious, jolted awake and I felt Mr Cosby’s hand groping my breasts under my shirt,” Constand said.

She told the jury that she also felt him touching her genitals and take her hand and place it on his penis.

Constand’s testimony not only forms the crux of Montgomery County prosecutors’ case – many of the dozens of women who have accused Cosby of sexual assault hope that the strength of Constand’s story will be enough to send him to prison.

So far, hers are the only accusations that have resulted in a criminal trial.

Constand entered the courtroom on Tuesday afternoon seeming confident, and smiling politely as she described for prosecutors the beginning of her friendship with Cosby. She was calm and direct on cross-examination as Angela Agrusa, an attorney for Cosby, asked about several differences between her testimony and her initial reports to police.

But Constand was halting and visibly upset as she recalled how Cosby greeted her at the door to his Elkins Park mansion one night in January 2004.

Constand testified that she wanted to discuss a career change she was considering, and the two talked for 20 or 30 minutes before Cosby excused himself. He went up a staircase, Constand recalled, and when he returned, he opened his hand to show her three blue pills.

“He said, ‘These will help you relax,’” she testified. When she asked if they were herbal, he nodded his head, yes. “He said, ‘They’re your friends, they’ll take the edge off … swallow them down.’ I said, ‘I trust you’ and swallowed the pills down.’”

Constand said Cosby offered her a glass of wine, which she declined because she hadn’t eaten. But Cosby said he had opened an old bottle and told her to “just taste it”, so she did.

Only a few minutes later, Constand said, she began to slur her words. She told Cosby that she was having trouble seeing him, and seeing him in double. Her mouth felt “cottony”. Cosby helped her over to a couch. By now, she was “panicking a little” and “very concerned”.

Then, she recalled the assault.

“I was frozen and I was very limp, and so I wasn’t able to fight in any way,” Constand continued, her voice quavering for the first time. “I wanted it to stop.”

The next thing Constand recalled was waking up on the couch with her bra up above her breasts. Her watch said it was past four in the morning. She walked into the kitchen, she testified, and found Cosby waiting for her.

Constand, “confused and disoriented”, said nothing. Cosby offered her tea and a muffin, so she took a few sips of tea, put part of the muffin in the napkin, and drove home.

“I felt humiliated and I was really confused because of what I remembered,” Constand said, fighting against tears. “And I just wanted to go home.”

After Constand’s testimony, Agrusa went point-by-point through Constand’s first official police statement and highlighted discrepancies between the statement and her testimony today.

There were differences in how she said she met Cosby – if she was introduced, or if she introduced herself – and how long she said she knew Cosby before the alleged assault.

Constand told Toronto police, according to the police report, that her contact with Cosby after the alleged assault was “rare and brief”. Agrusa showed the jury phone records showing that on the day Constand made her first report to the police, she first placed several calls to Cosby and to different attorneys’ offices. She continued to speak to attorneys after filing a report with police.

Constand also told Toronto police, according to her statement, that prior to the assault, she and Cosby had never been alone together.

“In fact, you had been alone with Mr Cosby,” Agrusa said. That was correct, Constand said.

“I also testified that I was really nervous and I wasn’t able to recall every particular moment that I had seen Mr Cosby in order of dates,” Constand said of her interview with Toronto police.

Earlier in her testimony, Constand described the beginning of her relationship with Cosby, including a few incidents that gave her pause.

In 2002, Constand testified, “a well respected donor” to Temple’s sports programs introduced her to Cosby at a basketball game. After that, Cosby began making friendly phone calls to Constand’s office.

“I think Mr Cosby just generally wanted to get to know me,” she said. The questions became more personal – where she was from, and whether she had played basketball – and soon, Cosby was inviting Constand to dinner.

Sometimes, the dinners involved friends. But there were others with Cosby alone at his mansion in Elkins Park, she said.

The first time, as they chatted about Temple basketball and as she prepared to go home, Cosby placed his hand on her thigh, Constand testified.

“I just moved away,” she said. “I was thinking, it was just an affectionate touch on my thigh. Affectionate, although suggestive.” She said she didn’t think much of it.

At another dinner, she said, Cosby sat very close to her. He commented on her pants and touched the side of her waist, and then he attempted to unbutton the top of her pants.

“I felt his hand at the top of my zipper,” she said. She leaned forward, an attempt to get him to remove his hand, and he did. “I said, ‘I’m not here for that. I don’t want that.’ I don’t remember what he said, but it was getting late and I knew it was time to go.”

Constand continued to stay in touch with Cosby, she testified, because “I wasn’t scared of somebody making a pass at me or making an advance at me. I trusted him and I wasn’t scared of him in any way.”

On another occasion, Cosby encouraged her to come to a Connecticut casino where he was performing. He told her to come to his hotel room for some baked goods, and once she was there, he flopped down on to the bed where she was sitting so that his leg grazed against hers. He laid there for about 10 minutes, she said, until Constand, who said she wasn’t sure if he was feeling well, thanked him for the invitation and left.

After he assaulted her, Constand testified, she tried once to confront Cosby about the pills he had given her. It was after he invited her to a Chinese restaurant with some friends.

After dinner, Cosby told her to come to his house if she wished to talk to him, so she did.

She asked what pills he gave to her.

“I thought you had an orgasm, didn’t you?” Cosby said, she recalled.

“I did not,” she replied, and asked again. When he evaded her questions, she left.

Constand would later report the assault to detectives in Toronto.

Some time after she moved back to Canada, Constand said she told her mother, Gianna, about the assault. Her mother had found her crying, she said, after waking up from a bad dream.

Constand said she and her mother called Cosby to confront him with Constand’s story. There was silence on the other end, and then Cosby apologized to Constand and her mother, she testified.

He promised to write down the name of the pills he gave her on a piece of paper and mail it to them.

Constand said Cosby agreed with everything she said, but that he said, with her mother listening, that she had had an orgasm.

Kristen Feden, a prosecutor, asked Constand why parts of her testimony conflicted with the story she told Toronto detectives in her first police interview in 2005. She told detectives she had only known Cosby for six months before the alleged assault, for instance, but on Tuesday testified it was 16 months.

“I was really just confused,” Constand said. “I had a lot going through my mind …And it was overwhelming. Very overwhelming.”