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U.S. NEWS Wednesday 7 June 2017

‘I was frozen’:
Cosby accuser Constand says she was drugged, groped

but destroying his nice-guy thigh. Another time, she
image, but the statute of said, Cosby tried to undo
limitations for prosecution her pants but took his hand
had run out in nearly every away when she leaned for-
case. Constand’s case is ward and told him: “I’m not
the only one in which Cos- here for that. I don’t want
by has been charged. that.”
Constand, who is from the Asked by a prosecutor why
Toronto area, met Cosby she remained friends with
while working for the wom- him, she said: “I wasn’t
en’s basketball team at scared of someone mak-
Temple, Cosby’s alma ma- ing an advance at me or a
ter. She said they became pass at me.”
friends over conversations The defense has pointed
about the team and lat- out that phone records
er her career. He invited show Constand called Cos-
her to dine with him at his by 53 times after she says
home. he assaulted her. Constand
Andrea Constand walks to the courtroom during Bill Cosby’s Cosby was “somebody I told the jury the calls mostly
sexual assault trial at the Montgomery County Courthouse in trusted,” Constand said. “A involved the women’s bas-
Norristown, Pa., Tuesday, June 6, 2017. Cosby is accused of mentor.” ketball team, especially
drugging and sexually assaulting Constand at his home outside But he had also previ- around tournament time.
Philadelphia in 2004.
(AP Photo/Matt Rourke, Pool) ously made advances on “It had more to do with
her, she said. One time, business than it did with me
he placed a hand on her personally,” she said.q
By MARYCLAIRE DALE 6-footer with dark curly hair,
MICHAEL R. SISAK was calm and collected as
Associated Press she testified, looking at the
NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) — jury as she began describ-
Bill Cosby’s chief accuser ing the assault.
took the stand at his sexual She said Cosby gave her
assault trial Tuesday to tell pills he claimed were a
her story publicly for the first natural remedy to ease her
time, saying the comedian stress about a looming ca-
violated her after giving reer change. “They’re your
her three blue pills that left friends. They’ll take the
her paralyzed and helpless. edge off,” she quoted him
“In my head, I was trying to as saying.
get my hands to move or She told the jury she started
my legs to move, but I was feeling woozy after about
frozen,” Andrea Constand, 20 minutes, with blurred vi-
a 44-year-old former em- sion, slurred words and legs
ployee of the basketball that felt like rubber. Cosby
program at Temple Univer- then penetrated her with
sity, said in their long-await- his hand and also placed
ed courtroom confronta- her hand on his penis and
tion. “I wasn’t able to fight moved it back and forth,
in any way.” she said.
She added: “I wanted it to She said she was unable to
stop.” push him away or tell him
Cosby, 79, is charged to stop.
with drugging and sexu- Afterward, Constand said,
ally abusing Constand at “I felt really humiliated and
his suburban Philadelphia I felt really confused.”
home in 2004. The TV star Cosby, sitting across the
once dubbed America’s room at the defense table,
Dad could get 10 years in leaned in to listen, whis-
prison if convicted. pered to his lawyer and, at
His lawyers tried to poke times, shook his head.
holes in Constand’s story, Before Tuesday, Constand
citing differences between had never spoken about
her courtroom testimony Cosby in public, barred
and the accounts she from doing so under the
gave to police and in a terms of a confidential set-
lawsuit in 2005. The defense tlement they reached in
has argued the two had a 2006.
romantic relationship, that Her deposition from that
Constand wasn’t incapaci- lawsuit remains sealed.
tated and that the sexual Some 60 women have
encounter was consensual. come forward to say Cosby
Constand, an athletic sexually violated them, all