Andrea Constand Denies She Had Romantic Relationship With Bill Cosby During Hours Of Cross-Examination
NORRISTOWN, Pa. (CBS/AP) — The woman who accuses Bill Cosby of drugging and violating her more than a decade ago stood by her story at his sex-crimes trial Wednesday, withstanding hours of often tedious cross-examination that didn't produce the stumbles the TV star might have hoped for.
Calm and composed, Andrea Constand brushed off suggestions she and Cosby had a romantic relationship before the 2004 encounter at his suburban Philadelphia home.
And she explained away the numerous phone calls they had afterward by saying she was merely returning Cosby's messages about the women's basketball squad at Temple University, where he was a powerful member of the board of trustees and she was director of team operations.
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Constand, 44, left the witness stand after some seven hours of testimony over two days, during which she told the jury that Cosby gave her three blue pills and then penetrated her with his fingers as she lay paralyzed on a couch, unable to tell him to stop.
Her long-awaited showdown with the 79-year-old comedian's lawyers became bogged down Wednesday in an examination of her phone records and police statements, and the defense couldn't budge her off her account of molestation and broken trust.
During one exchange, Cosby lawyer Angela Agrusa suggested that Constand once enjoyed a romantic dinner at Cosby's home before the alleged assault.
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"You were sitting by the fire. The room was dark. There was a nice mood ...," Agrusa began, paraphrasing Constand's 2005 statement to police.
"I don't know what that means," Constand said.
"The lights were dim and the fire was going," the lawyer continued.
"I don't really remember how dim the lights were, but I did have to eat my dinner," Constand said.
Agrusa contended that the advances Cosby made on Constand on two occasions — touching her thigh one time, and attempting to unbutton her pants and pull down her zipper another — signaled his romantic interest. Constand said she told Cosby she was not interested.
"So you knew — you were alone at his home — that Mr. Cosby was interested in you romantically?" Agrusa asked.
"No, ma'am, he never said a word to me," Constand said.
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Cosby is charged with aggravated indecent assault. The comedian once dubbed America's Dad could get 10 years in prison if convicted.
Outside the courtroom, an animated Cosby appears to joke with his assistant.
Constand testified that she was going to confront Cosby about the assault during an event he was hosting at his home for high school students. At the same time, Constand said, she was bringing Cosby a gift from a mutual acquaintance.
Agrusa seized on the seeming contradiction: "You were going to confront the man you say assaulted you and you're bringing him bath salts?"
Standing at a podium, the lawyer painstakingly reviewed Constand's phone records and police statements, hoping to show she changed her mind about the date of the alleged assault and gave authorities an incomplete picture of her friendship with the TV star.
Constand perhaps muted the expected attack by acknowledging some initial confusion over just when the encounter occurred. She said she first thought it was after a group dinner in March and later realized it happened after a private dinner a month or two earlier.
"I was mistaken," she said, unflustered.
Constand was direct and polite under cross-examination, even when Agrusa's questioning grew pointed and accusatory. Cosby kept still, looking down at the defense table through most of the morning.
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At times, Agrusa stumbled over dates and details in her questions, confusing July for January, and "Canadian police" for the department in Cheltenham Township, where Cosby's home is situated, prompting a prosecutor to ask for clarification.
At one point, a juror had trouble reading the phone records that Agrusa projected on a courtroom screen, piping up to ask, "Is that an 8?"
Cosby's lawyers have argued that the sexual encounter with Constand was consensual and have cited phone records showing she called the TV star 53 times afterward, including one call several weeks after the alleged assault that lasted 20 minutes.
But Constand said Wednesday she was merely returning his messages.
Prosecutors said phone records show a consistent pattern of Constand checking her voicemail and then calling Cosby in the two months after the alleged January 2004 assault. Constand said the calls to her university-issued cellphone pertained to Temple women's basketball, and stopped once she left the school.
"She continued to do her job," Constand's lawyer, Dolores Troiani, said outside court. "This man was a trustee at Temple. Of course she was calling him back."
She added, "I thought she was wonderful, she's maintaining her cool. I would be up there screaming, 'Are you kidding me?'"
Constand testified Tuesday that on a night in January 2004, Cosby offered her three pills to help her relax, telling Constand they were natural or herbal.
Prosecutors have previously contended those pills were Quaaludes.
Constand claims she blacked out, was frozen and eventually awoke to Cosby assaulting her.
Lawyers for the comedian have vehemently denied Constand was drugged and assaulted.
Attorney Gloria Allred, who is representing some of the other women who've accused Cosby of similar conduct, says inconsistencies in Constand's testimony are minor.
"They can go through minor inconsistencies all day long, all night long," said Allred. "It's still not going to the issue of was she incapacitated by those pills and was she even able to consent or not consent."
At one point, Allred was ejected from the courtroom because her cellphone rang. Court workers ushered her out.
Cellphone use in the courtroom is banned.
Also, a local television news digital producer is barred from covering the trial after he texted in the courtroom.
He apologized at the conclusion of a two-hour long contempt hearing.
The court has issued orders on conduct. The judge issued a stern warning Wednesday morning that the sequestered jury was apprehensive about people possibly lurking around their hotel and that no one is to take pictures or try to contact jurors.
Some 60 women have come forward to say Cosby sexually violated them, all but destroying his nice-guy image, but the statute of limitations for prosecution had run out in nearly every case. Constand's case is the only one in which Cosby has been charged.
CBS3's Joe Holden contributed to this report.
(TM and © Copyright 2017 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2017 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
