Andrea Constand, who has accused Bill Cosby of drugging and sexually assaulting her in 2004, took the stand today at the Norristown, Pennsylvania, court.
Constand answered questions for nearly an hour from the prosecution. She repeatedly paused and choked up while describing the alleged assault and a previous unwanted advance from Cosby.
Read: Prosecution in Bill Cosby trial says Constand was 'lifeless' after taking pills"He opened his hand and he had three blue pills in his hand, he said these will help you relax. I said, ‘What are they? Are they natural? Are they herbal?’ And he nodded his head and said ‘Yes, put them down,’" she described to the jury.
Constand said she began to feel the effects of the pills about 30 minutes later. She slurred her words and had trouble seeing, she testified.
“I said, ‘I see two of you,’” she continued. “Mr. Cosby stood up, and I stood up. Cause he said you probably need to relax, and when I stood up, my legs were not strong, and I began to panic a little bit ... But I knew I couldn’t really get up and go anywhere at the same time, because my legs were rubbery, I was in no state of mind."
Montgomery County Assistant District Attorney Kristen Feden then asked if she told Cosby to stop making an advance toward her.
“I wasn’t able to,” she said. “In my head I was trying to get my hands to move or my legs to move, but I was frozen and those [mental] messages didn’t get there and I was very limp, so I wasn’t able to fight him anyway. I wanted it to stop.”
Constand later added that she confronted Cosby after the alleged incident, including several calls, some with her mother listening. After realizing he was being “evasive” and would not tell her what the pills that he gave her were, she accused him of assault.
“Mr. Cosby eventually he apologized to me and my mother,” she said.
On Monday, Cosby's defense attorney Brian McMonagle emphatically told the jury that Constand was “never incapacitated" during her encounters with the comedian, and that she had been “untruthful time and time and time again" with local law enforcement.
During cross-examination, Constand acknowledged that she initially told police in Canada that she had never been alone with Cosby prior to the alleged assault. She testified Tuesday that she in fact had been alone with Cosby on several earlier occasions, but she rebuffed any advances. She also acknowledged dozens of phone calls between her and Cosby between the date of the alleged assault and her 2005 filing of a police report in Canada.
Constand was one of multiple people to take the stand on Tuesday, including the mother of another Cosby accuser Kelly Johnson, Dr. Patrice Sewell, and attorney Joseph Miller, who was representing Johnson's former employer the William Morris Agency when he said she told him of the alleged assault more than two decades ago. But Miller said there were discrepancies in Johnson's story.
Johnson testified Monday that the alleged assault took place in 1996. Miller claimed Johnson told him that the alleged incident occurred in 1990 when they originally spoke. During his testimony, Miller said he was referring to his notes, not an official deposition from that case, which he said is unavailable. Johnson's attorney, Gloria Allred, said it was impossible to clarify what Johnson said without an official deposition.
Cosby was charged in 2015 with felony aggravated indecent assault shortly before the statute of limitations on Constand's claim expired. This is the first time that Cosby, 79, has been charged with a crime, though in recent years, he has been accused by more than 50 women of drugging and/or sexual misconduct.
Cosby, 79, has always maintained his innocence. His defense team has yet to cross-examine Constand.
If Cosby is convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison and a $25,000 fine.