Judge Rejects Cosby Team's Strategy on Accuser

Lawyers wanted to make an issue out of Andrea Constand being gay
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 9, 2017 1:48 PM CDT
Judge Rejects Cosby Team's Strategy on Accuser
Andrea Constand walks from the courtroom after testifying at Bill Cosby's sexual assault trial at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pa., Tuesday, June 6, 2017.   (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, Pool)

Andrea Constand, the accuser at the center of Bill Cosby's sexual assault trial, told police during a 2005 interview that she is gay, though she had a boyfriend as a teen and sexual contact with a man in her 20s. It turns out that Cosby's defense team wanted to introduce her sexual orientation as evidence in the trial, but the judge denied that motion this week, NBC News reports. More on that and the developments in the trial:

  • According to the prosecution's filing, Cosby's defense team says that Constand did not tell Cosby she was gay during their 2004 interactions, which amounts to "conceal[ment] and deceit." The DA's office's response to that? "Defendant puts a new twist on an old argument: that because Ms. Constand did not reveal this most personal detail about her life she must have been asking for defendant to drug and sexually assault her."

  • TMZ's take on the issue of Constand's sexual orientation? Cosby should be grateful the judge denied his team's motion. "If she wasn't into guys, the prosecution could have destroyed Cosby's argument she consented to sexual contact with the comedian," and if the issue was brought into the trial as evidence, it "could have nailed Cosby's coffin shut."
  • Thursday's proceedings involved the jury hearing that Cosby admitted to police during a deposition years ago that he fondled Constand after giving her Benadryl, though he insisted she consented to the behavior and showed no ill effects from the medication. Jezebel has an extensive rundown of a police investigator "sassing" the defense attorney who cross-examined him Thursday.
  • There's more coming from the deposition on Friday, day five of the trial, USA Today and the New York Times report in previews of the day's proceedings. Notably, jurors will hear that Cosby admitted to obtaining quaaludes to give to women with whom he wanted to have sex.
  • Already Friday, jurors have heard that in the deposition, Cosby feared he looked like a "dirty old man with a young girl" when Constand's mother called him in 2005, per the Washington Post. He said he apologized, "but my apology was, my God, I’m in trouble with these people because this is an old man and their young daughter," per the Philadelphia Inquirer.
  • NBC notes that Cosby's wife has yet to make an appearance in the courtroom, but it has a list of supporters who have shown up.
  • Forbes takes a look at the millions Cosby has lost over sexual assault accusations from Constand and others.
(More Bill Cosby stories.)

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