Andrea Constand accused Bill Cosby of sexually assaulting her in 2004 and took the witness stand to share her story with the jury in Cosby’s trial Tuesday.
NORRISTOWN, Pa. — Andrea Constand accused Bill Cosby of sexually assaulting her back in 2004, and today, she took the witness stand to share her story with the jury in Cosby’s trial.
Tall and thin with big, frizzy hair, she approached the witness stand as Cosby sat at the defense table, leaning forward, listening.
Constand said she worked as the director of basketball operations at Temple University, and she was introduced to Cosby at a basketball game in the fall of 2002. He wanted to see the new locker rooms, which she and a few others showed him.
A few weeks later, Cosby started calling Constand at her office, asking questions about the basketball program, but they soon developed a friendship.
«Ultimately, the questions turned personal. Where are you from? Did you play basketball, yourself? Things of that nature, » she said.
When he asked for her cellphone number and invited her to his house for dinner, she didn’t think he had anything romantic in mind.
She ate dinner at his house — alone. When she was finished, he came into the room to talk to her and at one point put his hand on her thigh. It seemed to be an affectionate — yet suggestive — touch, she said.
At another point, Cosby invited her back to his home to talk about Temple basketball and about her career. That’s when she said he made an advance that made her feel uncomfortable, placing his hand on the button of her pants, trying to unbutton it, she said.
She leaned forward and he moved his hand away. It was late, so she left, but they would continue to see each other, including two trips to New York City and a trip to the Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut.
«I trusted him and I wasn’t scared of him in any way, » Constand said.
«What was your understanding of your relationship with the defendant?» Assistant District Attorney Kristen Feden asked Constand.
«He was a Temple friend. Someone I trusted. A mentor. And somewhat of an older figure to me, » she said.
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Until the night that brought them together again at trial this week.
It was January 2004, and they had known each other for about 16 months. Constand was considering a career change and went to Cosby’s home to discuss it. They talked for about a half hour until he excused himself. When he came back, he opened his hand, and he had three blue pills, she said.
«These will help you relax, » she remembers Cosby saying.
She asked what they were and whether or not they were herbal and she said Cosby told her, «Put them down. They’re your friends. They’ll take the edge off.»
She said, «I trust you, » and swallowed the pills.
He offered her some wine, and she took a sip after his coaxing.
She then started to feel differently. After several minutes of talking, Constand said she began to slur her words and was having trouble seeing.
As she described this, Cosby leaned over to talk to his lawyer, shaking his head. But Constand continued on the stand, saying when she stood up, her legs were wobbly. Cosby grabbed her by the arm, she said, and brought her to a couch to lie down.
She faded in and out of consciousness, but was soon jolted wake.
«I felt Mr. Cosby’s hand groping my breasts under my shirt. I also felt his hand inside my vagina moving in and out. And I felt him take my hand and place it on his penis and move it back and forth, » Constand said.
When Feden asked her if she asked him to stop, Constand said, «I wasn’t able to.»
She was trying to move, but she said she was «frozen» and very limp.
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«I wanted it to stop, » she said, getting tearful.
Hours later — it was 4 a.m. — she got up, confused and disoriented, and went to the kitchen where Cosby was standing. He offered her a muffin and tea.
«I felt really humiliated and I was really confused, » she said. «I just wanted to go home.»
She did go back to his house, though. She wanted to know what he gave her.
She said Cosby told her, «I thought you had an orgasm.»
Constand said she did not and only wanted to know what those pills where, but he was being evasive, so she left.
He would continue to call her, though, and she said she would call him back because of his connection as a trustee and alumni of Temple and her still being an employee there.
She soon returned home to Toronto, but it wasn’t the last time that she would see Cosby. Her parents — unaware at this point of what happened — wanted to see one of his stand-up comedy shows.
«What was going through your mind with your parents requesting you to get tickets to see the man who sexually assaulted you?» Feden asked.
Constand said she did not have the courage at the time to tell her family what had happened, so she just went along with it.
Constand’s testimony will resume this afternoon.
