June 9 (UPI) — The jury in entertainer Bill Cosby‘s sexual assault trial heard portions of his 2004 deposition regarding his encounters with accuser Andrea Constand.
On Thursday, the fourth day of the Norristown, Pa. trial, prosecutors recited parts of a long-sealed deposition released in 2015. Montgomery County Det. James Reape said the release allowed police to reopen an investigation abandoned in 2005 for lack of evidence.
Reape read portions of the deposition aloud. It included a statement that Cosby first became attracted to Constand, then manager of Temple University’s basketball team, in 2003. Cosby said he chose to pursue a friendship with Constand, which he hoped would grow to something more intimate.
In a 2004 encounter central to the trial, Cosby said he gave Constand Benadryl pills, an antihistamine medication, to help her “relax.” After “necking” on the couch, Cosby went to bed and Constand slept on the couch. She gave no indication of anything “negative” occurring, the deposition said.
Prior to the recitation of the deposition, Cheltenham Township Sgt. Richard Schaffer testified that, in a 2005 interview after Constand reported the incident, Cosby kissed and fondled Constand on the couch. Cosby said Constand was conscious.
Lead defense attorney Brian McMonagle asked Shaffer about Cosby’s insistence that Constand was not incapacitated at the time of the incident.
“That was his version of the story,” Shaffer said.
The jury heard Constand’s testimony earlier in the trial, as well as testimony from one other woman who accused Cosby of drugging and sexually assaulting her in 1996. Dozens of women have come forward with similar stories, dating to the 1960s, but Constand’s case is the first to reach trial.
In her testimony, Constand said she arrived at Cosby’s Philadelphia-area home to discuss her career. After being “frozen” in near-paralysis by the pills Cosby gave her, she said, he groped her breasts and vagina, and placed his penis in her hand.
