During the Bill Cosby indecent assault trial on Monday, while prosecutors claimed the 79-year-old actor knew exactly what he was doing when he drugged and assaulted Andrea Constand in 2004, the defense attacked the credibility of Constand and another Cosby accuser.
Cosby arrived along with Keshia Knight Pulliam, who played his daughter Rudy Huxtable on “The Cosby Show.” The courtroom was packed with members of the public and media.
Cosby faces three counts of aggravated indecent assault, and he has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Cosby has said he does not plan to testify. His deposition from Constand’s civil suit will stand as his explanation of what happened — which means the trial likely will hinge on a classic case of “he said, she said.”
In opening statements, Assistant District Attorney Kristen Feden told jurors that when Cosby “handed those pills to Andrea he knew what affect it would take” and he knew Constand would not be able to refuse his advances.
“Trust, betrayal, and the inability to consent. That’s what this case is about. … This is a case about a man, this man,” she said, pointing to Cosby, “who used his power and his fame and his previously practiced method of placing a young trusting woman in an incapacitated state so that he could sexually pleasure himself so that she couldn’t say no.”
The district attorney at the time of the alleged assault declined to press charges, and in 2006 Cosby settled a civil suit with Constand that remained sealed for almost a decade.
Defense attorney Brian McMonagle seized on the original prosecutor not leveling charges against Cosby, saying the case was “exhaustively investigated” at the time.
“Their investigation revealed that Andrea Constand had been untruthful time and time and time again,” he said.
Though more than 50 women have accused the former “I Spy” star of assault, the trial will focus on the testimony of Constand and one other accuser, Kelly Johnson.
Johnson was the first witness to take the stand in the trial. She testified that she worked as an assistant at the William Morris talent agency from 1990 to 1996, a period in which Cosby was one her boss’s most important client.
She testified that Cosby drugged her and then took advantage of her without her consent at a hotel in Los Angeles in 1996. Prosecutors introduced her testimony in an attempt to show that Cosby had a “pattern” in his assaults.
“Like Andrea, at a certain point in their friendship, he invited her over for lunch to discuss her career plans. Like Andrea, he gave her a pill. Like Andrea, she became incapacitated. Like Andrea, when she lost consciousness the defendant grabbed her hand, placed it on his penis and masturbated himself,” the prosecutor told jurors.
In opening statements, defense launched an attack on Constand’s credibility, saying she originally told police she had never been alone with Cosby before the assault, that she went to dinner with Cosby and other friends then went back to his house before the assault and that she had no contact with Cosby following the assault.
McMonagle argued that there was no dinner with friends — Constand went to Cosby’s home for career advice — and they spoke on the phone 72 times after the assault, with Constand initiating 53 of the calls. Sometimes, they spoke for up to 40 minutes, he said.
She had also been alone with him prior to the alleged assault, the attorney said, during a visit to his Foxwoods Resort Casino hotel room in Mashantucket, Connecticut.
The prosecution countered that the defense was trying to distract jurors by talking about inconsistencies, when most of Constand’s story is corroborated in Cosby’s deposition.