NORRISTOWN, Pennsylvania—The first of the five women expected to testify that they, like Andrea Constand, were drugged and sexually assaulted by Bill Cosby took the stand Tuesday afternoon in the retrial of the disgraced comedian. Thomas has told her story before. She first spoke out in 2015 and was a part of the document Cosby: The Women Speak. But this time, Cosby was in the room, and a conviction depends on whether or not a panel of jurors will believe her.
Thomas told her story. At the time, she said, she was in her early 20s, living in the Denver area, and making a go at seeing if she could have a musical theater or acting career. She worked at the Country Dinner Playhouse as a “glorified waitress” who also could be cast in shows there. She had an agent, but that agent was only for modeling, and she wanted to do acting as well—so she switched to JF Images, which was owned by Jo Farrell and known to be so tough she got nicknamed “the Barracuda.” But her actual agent at the agency was Annie Maloney, a middle-age woman who walked with a cane and acted “like a grandmother.”
One day, Maloney called her and told her that “a prominent an icon in the entertainment world wanted to mentor promising young talent. And my first thought was ‘Annie’s telling me I’m promising young talent!’ I didn’t know who it was. She simply wanted to know if I would be available for this working-together monitoring. And I said ‘Yeah of course.’”
She was supposed to call a person, she was told, called Mr. C. She later learned it was Cosby, but she had to keep that to herself.
“We only referred to him as Mr. C because other talent in the agency will get very jealous if they find out I’m getting mentoring by someone of this prestige,” Thomas said. “So it was Mr. C.” At times during her testimony, Thomas still referred to Cosby “Mr. C.”
Sure enough, Cosby called her at home. At the time, she lived with her parents so he spoke to her mom and dad as well. Thomas said his explanation was that she had come highly recommended by her agent and “he was looking forward to giving back to the industry which had given him so much, and this was his way that he could do that.”
At times during her testimony, Thomas still referred to Cosby “Mr. C.”
The plan, according to her testimony, was for Thomas to fly to Reno, Nevada, to meet with Cosby for the promised mentoring. Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele showed pages from Thomas’s scrapbook in court. She’d saved her airplane ticket, her travel itinerary, bought post cards, and taken pictures. She didn’t travel much, Thomas said, and even made a self-effacing tone at how she took pictures with her “Kodak Instamatic.” She even saved two green drink tickets from Harrah’s Reno Hotel and Casino.
When Thomas arrived in Reno, she was picked up at the airport by a driver but he took her outside the city to what she described as a ranch house. She was told that Cosby preferred to be out here, with space to run, fresh air, more privacy, and less paparazzi. She went along with it because, Thomas said, “she had no reason not to believe this.”
Cosby greeted her at the door, told her to get comfortable, and had her perform a monologue for him at a kitchen table. She said he seemed unimpressed, but also said she wasn’t surprised because “I’m little nobody from Colorado who is with this great man. I didn’t expect him to be thoroughly impressed. That’s why I’m here.” He then asked her to do a cold read in which the character she was reading for was drunk. She agreed, but she said he was still unimpressed with her performance. She testified that he suggested a drink would help, and asked her what she would like. She said a glass of white wine, and soon enough one appeared in front of her.
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