Bill Cosby Confronts Main Accuser Andrea Constand At Trial
NORRISTOWN, Pa. (CBSNewYork/AP) — Bill Cosby's primary accuser has taken the witness stand at the actor's sexual assault retrial, telling a jury she wants justice after five other women testified that the man once revered as "America's Dad" is a serial rapist who harmed them too.
Andrea Constand began testifying Friday at the courthouse in suburban Philadelphia. She's getting a second chance to confront Cosby in court after his first trial ended with a hung jury.
"I was weak. I was limp, and I just could not fight him off," said Constand, giving a harrowing account of sexual molestation remarkably similar to the one she gave at last year's trial,.
The defense team calls Constand a "con artist" who framed Cosby for money. Cosby paid her $3.4 million in a 2006 civil settlement. Constand is telling jurors she has nothing to gain financially now by wanting him locked up.
Constand, who worked as a women's basketball administrator at Temple University, his alma mater, said Cosby offered her pills and a sip of wine after she said she was "stressed" about telling the Temple coach of her plans to leave to study massage therapy in her native Canada. He called the pills "your friends" and told her they would "help take the edge off."
Instead, Constand said, the pills instead made her black out. She said she awoke to find Cosby penetrating her with his fingers, touching her breast and putting her hand on his penis.
She said she wanted Cosby to stop but couldn't say anything. She tried moving her arms and legs but couldn't.
Constand said she awoke between 4 and 5 a.m. to find her bra up around her neck and her pants half unzipped. She said Cosby stopped her as she went to leave: "All he said was there's a muffin and tea on the table and then, 'All right' and then I left."
Afterward, Constand said, "I was really humiliated. I was in shock. And I was really confused."
Cosby has said he gave Constand the cold medicine Benadryl and that she consented to a sexual encounter.
Constand follows five other accusers who also testified against the 80-year-old comedian.
The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they grant permission, which Constand has done.
Constand's appearance is her second chance to confront Cosby in court, since his first trial ended without a verdict.
The 45-year-old Constand says Cosby drugged and molested her at his suburban Philadelphia mansion in January 2004. Cosby says the encounter was consensual, but paid $3.4 million in 2006 to settle a civil lawsuit.
A spokesman for Cosby told reporters Friday that they're confident he'll be found not guilty.
Five other women have spent the week telling jurors that the entertainer is a serial rapist who also harmed them.
On Thursday, Janice Dickinson told jurors the star gave her a pill he claimed would ease her menstrual cramps but instead left her immobilized and unable to stop an assault she called "gross."
Dickinson, 27 at the time, testified she felt vaginal pain and, after waking up the next morning, noticed semen between her legs. She said Cosby looked at her "like I was crazy" when she confronted him about what had happened.
The Associated Press doesn't typically identify people who say they're victims of sexual assault unless they grant permission, which Constand has done.
(© Copyright 2018 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
