Cosby Accuser Continues Testimony In Sex Assault Trial, Then Her Mother Takes Stand
NORRISTOWN, Pa. (KDKA) - Cross-examination of the alleged victim continued in day three of Bill Cosby's aggravated indecent assault trial in Montgomery County.
Cosby sat at the end of the counsel table, as far away from the witness stand as he could get, with his chair positioned lower than the attorney's chairs at the defense table. That made Cosby look smaller to the jury.
Cosby was still not looking at Andrea Constand on the stand. He had his body positioned so that he is looking at his attorney Angela Agrusa as she was doing the questioning.
Agrusa appeared to be looking for that "Perry Mason" moment all throughout Wednesday's cross-examination, but it just was not there.
KDKA Legal Editor Julie Grant tells the "KDKA Morning News" says Andrea Constand has seemed "extremely" credible during her testimony.
His accuser was not rattled at all. Constand was clear and thoughtful with her answers.
"She is very calm, very thoughtful in her answers. She is sincere and believable. She really appears to be connecting with the jury and she wasn't rattled at all by defense council's cross examination of the past two days," said Grant.
Meanwhile, Agrusa appeared disorganized at times and was not introducing evidence properly.
Wednesday morning's cross-examination, centered primarily around phone calls Constand made in January of 2005, after she told her mother Cosby sexually assaulted her at his Cheltenham Township home in January of 2004.
She initially told police the sexual assault and drugging happened in March of 2004 after a group dinner at a local restaurant, but then said she was "mistaken" and it happened at Cosby's Cheltenham Township home on an evening in January of 2004.
The only contradiction defense counsel was able to establish today was a very minor one. On a prior occasion, at the Foxwoods Casino Hotel, Constand admitted that she laid on a bed with Cosby.
On direct examination, she told the prosecutor that she only sat on the bed. Throughout all the questioning, she has consistently said there was no sexual contact on that prior occasion.
The defense also went through several phone records, showing Constand called Cosby numerous times after the alleged assault. She explained the numerous phone calls as being about the Temple University's women's basketball team. After she left her job at Temple in March of 2004, the phone records show she wasn't calling him anymore.
The only witness who was possibly even stronger was her mother, Gianna. She said she noticed changes in her daughter when she moved back home to Canada in March.
She said, "She was having a lot of nightmares. I could hear her. The fact that she screamed after the nightmares. It was very, very frequent."
When Constand told her about it in January of 2005, she said she called Cosby to confront him about what he gave her. She calls it the conversation where he surrendered.
"He said I have to go upstairs and look at the prescription bottle," Constand's mother said on the stand.
She said Cosby admitted having sexual contact with her daughter. The mother told the jury, "He admitted that he was a sick man."
According to her, Cosby even told her that her daughter had an orgasm. She said the conversation ended with, "He said, 'I apologize to Andrea and I apologize to you, Mom.'"
The prosecutor played a conversation between Cosby and the mother that she recorded, where he offered to pay for more schooling for Constand and wanted to arrange a meeting between them in another city.
At one point she started crying on the stand, covering her face with her hand, and whispered into the microphone, "I've just got to get my composure."
Grant says that Constand's mother could be the best witness the prosecution has.
"She was the perfect the combination of adorable and relatable to the jury and sincere, yet she was tough and when defense council tried to point out some inconsistencies with her and really question. She stood up like nobody expected to [the defense]," said Grant.
If Cosby is convicted, the maximum penalty he could face is 30 years in prison.
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