The Associated Press won a long battle to unseal court documents that Bill Cosby's lawyers said would be "embarassing" for the accused serial rapist. A judge unsealed those documents today, and now we know why Cosby's protectors said their release "would generate a firestorm of publicity."
The AP reports on their contents: in 2005, Cosby testified that he acquired Quaaludes “with the intent of giving them to young women he wanted to have sex with, and he admitted giving the sedative to at least one woman and 'other people.”
He was under questioning by a lawyer for former Temple University employee Andrea Constand, who accused Cosby, “in a case that was settled before trial, of drugging and sexually assaulting her at his suburban Philadelphia mansion.”
The AP had gone to court over the documents, in which Cosby, 77, testifies under oath in a lawsuit filed by a former Temple University employee. He testified that he gave her three doses of Benadryl.
That sexual abuse case settled for undisclosed terms in 2006. AP says Cosby's lawyers didn't return calls from them today. Duh.
Cosby has been accused by more than two dozen women of sexual misconduct, including allegations by many that he drugged and raped them in incidents dating back more than four decades. Cosby, 77, has never been criminally charged, and most of the accusations are barred by statutes of limitations.
Cosby resigned in December from the board of trustees at Temple, where he was the popular face of the Philadelphia school in advertisements, fundraising campaigns and commencement speeches.
“APNewsBreak: Cosby said he got drugs to give women for sex” [AP]
“The Latest: Accuser's lawyers say Cosby words support claims” [AP]
“Excerpts of Bill Cosby's statements in a 2005 deposition” [AP]
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EXCERPTS FROM THE DOCUMENTS
The documents unsealed by a federal judge today involve the case of Andrea Constand, a former Temple University employee who said Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted her. The Associated Press reports that in these court transcripts, Cosby admits obtaining seven prescriptions for quaaludes and says he gave them to other people. That was followed up by this questioning by Constand's lawyer:
Question: Who are the people that you gave the quaaludes to?
Cosby's lawyer interrupts and asks to limit the questioning to a certain group of accusers referred to in the documents as the Jane Does.
Q. When you got the quaaludes, was it in your mind that you were going to use these quaaludes for young women that you wanted to have sex with?
Answer: Yes.
Q. Did you ever give any of those young women the quaaludes without their knowledge?
Cosby's lawyer objects, again demanding that Constand's lawyer restrict the scope of the question to the Jane Does. They go back and forth over that point, then Cosby continues.
—I misunderstood. Woman, meaning (another accuser), and not women.
Q. OK. So, you're saying you never gave the quaaludes to anyone other than (a specific person)?
Cosby's lawyer: Don't answer the question. You can ask all the questions you want about the Jane Does.
In the questioning, Cosby also answered questions about a sexual relationship with a different woman in 1978, who has accused the comedian of having drugged and assaulted her when she was 19.
Cosby: I meet (the accuser) in Las Vegas. She meets me backstage. I give her quaaludes. We then have sex. I do not. I can't judge at this time what she knows about herself for 19 years, a passive personality …
(The accuser) was sweet in her personality. As far as I was concerned was well-mannered, didn't demand or give a feeling that she was above anyone. If anything, I think she may very well have been very happy to be around the show business surroundings.
Constand's lawyer: Star struck?
Cosby: You'll have to ask her.
“Excerpts of Bill Cosby's statements in a 2005 deposition” [AP]
