NORRISTOWN, Pennsylvania—For a second time, Andrea Constand took the stand and calmly and methodically told a jury about the night she said famous comedian Bill Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted her. She went over the same narrative as last year’s trial, which ended with a hung jury, but this time was different. Her testimony was more precise and sharp. There was new audio of another person, then with the William Morris Agency, wanting to talk to Constand about a meeting with Cosby. And prosecutors also asked Constand questions meant to counteract the defense’s narrative that she was a lying gold digger.
Answering questions from prosecutor Kristen Feden, Constand talked about the fear she felt afterward for herself and her family, why she reached out lawyers for help, as well as why her job meant she had to keep talking to Cosby after the night she says she was assaulted.
One of the first questions Constand was asked was about the financial settlement she received from Cosby after her civil suit. Constand told the jury that, yes, she had settled for $3.38 million but she had no other lawsuits pending against Cosby. Constand noted she was not being paid to testify and would not be paid for the time she was missing from work. The next question from Feden was, “Why are you here?” Constand replied, “For justice.”
From there, Constand gave similar testimony to last year. She was director of basketball operations for Temple University, and Cosby was one of the university’s most prominent boosters. She met Cosby through her job and then he kept in touch with her, offering her advice and mentorship. While Constand talked about her job at Temple, Feden asked her questions about Marguerite “Margo” Jackson, a possible defense witness who will say that she was rooming with Constand on a Temple road trip when Constand told her she could set up a famous person for money with a sexual assault claim.
Constand testified that when she traveled for Temple she roomed on her own. Constand said she did not recall ever rooming with Jackson.
Constand talked about the several times she saw Cosby outside of Temple to talk about her career, and possibly moving into sports broadcasting. The first time she went to his house, where she said he made a pass at her, putting his hand on her leg. Constand wasn’t offended, she said, but thought it was odd. When Constand went to his home for a second time, to meet some other people in the community, he did nothing inappropriate. Constand also kept talking to him on the phone, which she said was part of her job.
“He just wanted to be updated on what was going on around Temple sports,” Constand said. “I was a person that he called to just get some information from.”
Constand went over each of her visits with Cosby: He invited her to New York City to meet with a friend of his who could help her break into broadcasting. Another time he invited her to New York City for a jazz concert, where he told her she would meet some other young women with the same interests as her (she saw him just briefly there). She went to his home, again, for another dinner to talk about her broadcasting career.
It was at that dinner, she said, that Cosby sat near Constand and, while they talked, reached over and tried to unbutton her her pants. She leaned forward and “gestured that I wasn’t interested, that I was not here for that and he complied respectfully. And nothing was ever said about it ever again.”
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
