The first witness in Bill Cosby’s criminal trial testified on Monday that the actor sexually assaulted her in 1996 in Los Angeles.<\/b>
\nNORRISTOWN, Pa. \u2014 While Bill Cosby is charged with sexually assaulting a woman at his home outside Philadelphia back in 2004, the first witness in the entertainment icon\u2019s criminal trial was a woman who testified on Monday that he engaged in similar conduct with her back in 1996 in Los Angeles.
Testifying softly and occasionally breaking down in tears, the woman told the jury in Cosby\u2019s sexual assault trial that she had become friendly with the iconic entertainer while she worked for his agent at the William Morris Agency. She described him as \u201cfatherly\u201d in a \u201cDr. Huxtable kind of way, \u201d referring to Cosby\u2019s TV character on \u201cThe Cosby Show.\u201d
She recalled that Cosby invited her to have lunch at the Bel Air Hotel in 1996. When she arrived at the bungalow where he was staying, the woman said Cosby offered her a large white pill, saying it would relax her. At first, she said she resisted and then tried to keep it under her tongue in hopes of being able to spit it out. But Cosby insisted she swallow it, saying that he would never ask her to do anything that would be harmful.
Bill Cosby Sexual Assault Trial: Prosecutor Says Actor Exploited \u2018His Power and His Fame\u2019
Soon, she said she felt like she was \u201cunder water\u201d and became woozy. When she regained full consciousness, she said her dress was pulled down and she was in a bed, and so was Cosby. \u201cHe made me touch his penis, \u201d said the woman, whose name is being withheld by Variety. She said she doesn\u2019 t remember the full details of what happened.
Her testimony came after Cosby was portrayed by a prosecutor as a larger-than-life TV figure who had become so intent on having sex with a young woman he met in Philadelphia that he drugged her and assaulted her at his home just outside the city, in Elkins Park, in early 2004.
The prosecutor, Kristen Feden, acknowledged that Cosby was a beloved TV figure as the stalwart and funny Cliff Huxtable, but she told the jury that he had engaged in \u201cheinous\u201d behavior and that they should put aside the image they may have of him from his days on the show.
\u201cTrust, betrayal, and an inability to consent \u2014 that\u2019s what this case is about, \u201d Feden told the jury in her opening statement at Cosby\u2019s criminal trial. She said the iconic entertainer \u201cused his power and his fame\u201d to nurture a relationship as a mentor and friend to former Temple University basketball manager Andrea Constand \u2014 only to violate that trust by assaulting her.
But Cosby\u2019s lawyer, Brian McMonagle, offered a strikingly different portrait of Cosby as an innocent man who had been framed. \u201cSexual assault is a terrible crime, \u201d he told the jury. \u201cThe only thing that is worse than that is the false accusation of sexual assault.\u201d
He said that Constand had changed her version of what had happened so often that the previous district attorney here had decided not to bring charges, and he reminded jurors that the legal burden of finding anyone guilty beyond a reasonable doubt is a heavy burden.
By the end of the trial, he told them that if prosecutors \u201cdon\u2019 t prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, you stand up in this courtroom and you call him what he is \u2014 and what he is not guilty.\u201d
McMonagle also offered a blistering cross-examination of the woman who worked at the Morris agency, challenging her memory of when the alleged assault took place and other details of her accusation.
\u201cDid anybody tell you to get selective amnesia in this case?\u201d he asked in a mocking tone.
\u201cNo, \u201d she replied.
He also pointed out that she took part in a news conference with her lawyer, Gloria Allred, about Cosby, yet never contacted law-enforcement authorities about what she claimed happened.
\u201cDid you ever call police?\u201d
\u201cNever, \u201d she replied.
But under questioning by prosecutor M. Stewart Ryan, the woman insisted that she had been \u201chumiliated\u201d and \u201cembarrassed\u201d about what had happened \u2014 and was frightened and unsure how to proceed.
\u201cI was very afraid because I had a secret about the biggest celebrity in the world at that time, \u201d she told the jury through her tears. \u201cIt was just me\u2026 I was afraid. I was very afraid.\u201d
Constand is just one of about 60 women who have accused Cosby of drugging and sexually assaulting them.
She is expected to take the stand later this week as the prosecution\u2019s star witness, and the outcome of the trial will hinge on her credibility.
She will surely face a painstaking cross-examination by the defense, though Feden said he will present other witnesses who will help corroborate her claims. But there won\u2019 t be a parade of women testifying about Cosby\u2019s alleged bad behavior. Judge Stephen O\u2019 Neill has allowed only the woman who worked at the Morris agency to take the stand as prosecutors seek to show a pattern of similar conduct.
Cosby is charged with three counts of aggravated indecent assault. He has pleaded not guilty and said the incident was consensual. If convicted, Cosby could face up to 10 years in prison.
The alleged assault that sparked the charges took place in early 2004 after Cosby invited Constand to his home in Elkins Park, just outside Philadelphia, to discuss her career plans. The criminal complaint filed in December of 2015 \u2014 shortly before the statute of limitations was due to expire \u2014 stated that Constand told Cosby she felt \u201cdrained\u201d and \u201cemotionally occupied\u201d and had been missing sleep. He responded by giving her three blue pills that he told her \u201cwill make you feel good, \u201d according to the complaint, and claimed they were herbal.
But Constand soon reported feeling dizzy, and Cosby led her to a couch, where, Feden said he touched her breasts and \u201cgrabbed her limp hand and placed it on his penis\u201d so that he could \u201cmasturbate himself.\u201d She said that Constand, now 44, left the next morning, upset and unsure what to do.
The trial opened in the economically challenged town of Norristown, the county seat of suburban Montgomery County, which is one of Pennsylvania\u2019s wealthiest counties. The county includes part of the affluent Main Line, which was the backdrop of the 1940 movie, \u201cThe Philadelphia Story, \u201d about a socialite\u2019s impending wedding.
But the place where the alleged sexual assault took place \u2014 Cosby\u2019s estate in Elkins Park \u2014 is far from the old-money mansions of the Main Line and much closer to the streets of North Philadelphia, where Cosby grew up and attended Temple University. Ultimately, he was Temple\u2019s biggest booster and was a member of the board of trustees when he met Constand in 2002.
By 7: 30 a.m., the plaza outside the courthouse became the staging area for media organizations from as far away as Germany and London, and the large courtroom was packed with more than four dozen journalists. A nearby overflow courtroom held seats for more journalists and members of the public, some of whom had waited in line for hours.
Even though he won fame and an enduring reputation as \u201cAmerica\u2019s Dad\u201d from his years as Dr. Cliff Huxtable on \u201cThe Cosby Show, \u201d which aired from 1984 to 1992, his image tanked in 2014 as dozens of women \u2014 as many as 60 in all \u2014 went public with accusations that Cosby slipped them sedatives and then assaulted them.<\/p>\n

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