On Tuesday, the second day of Bill Cosby‘s sexual assault trial, Andrea Constand gave her first public testimony on allegations that Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted her in 2004.
Taking the stand, Constand recalled the assault that she said took place at Cosby’s mansion in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania. At the time, Constand was an employee of Temple University athletics, where Cosby served on the Board of Trustees. She described him as a “mentor.” In 2005, after the assault and a failed criminal investigation, she filed a civil lawsuit against Cosby and settled.
According to the Cut, Constand reiterated testimony that she previously told police in 2005: Cosby invited her to his residence, where he gave her three pills for stress that he told her were herbal and would help her “relax.”
“I said, ‘I trust you.’ I took the pills and I swallowed them down,” Constand told the court.
She then remembered feeling frozen about 20 minutes later, her words slurred, and her vision blurred. She panicked when she tried to move her legs, realizing she couldn’t get up. Constand said she didn’t remember losing consciousness, but “jolted awake” after “feeling his hand inside my vagina” and “feeling him take my hand and place it on his penis.”
“I wasn’t able to fight him away. I wanted it to stop,” Constand said.
She said she felt humiliated and confused, and wanted to go home, but doesn’t remember what happened the next morning before leaving Cosby’s home.
According to CBS This Morning, Cosby’s lawyers asked Constand why she stayed in contact with Cosby after he allegedly made inappropriate advances toward her twice before the assault, to which she said she trusted him, and didn’t think he’d escalate things further.
Lawyers also asked her why she attended one of his comedy shows after leaving Temple and moving back to Canada. Constand said she had several phone conversations with him and met with him once to find out what were in the pills he gave her.
Instead of telling her, she said he responded, “I thought you had an orgasm, didn’t you?” She testified she had responded that she did not. Constand said at the time of getting the tickets to Cosby’s show from Cosby himself, she didn’t have the courage to tell her family, so she went along with it, and took her parents to the show.
Cosby reportedly hung his head in hands during Constand’s testimony, as well as rolled his eyes and shook his head. According to CBS, Constand’s testimony continues Wednesday.
H/T the Cut
