NORRISTOWN, Pa. (CN) – Patching inconsistencies in their witness’s story Tuesday, prosecutors called up two people to support the claims of a woman who says Bill Cosby drugged and assaulted her.
Kelly Johnson gave graphic testimony Monday about a night she claims to have spent in Cosby’s bungalow at the Bel-Air Hotel in 1996. This encounter predates by eight years Cosby’s relationship with Andrea Constand, the woman he is on trial for allegedly assaulting at his home in Cheltenham, Pennsylvania.
Though Montgomery County prosecutors want to establish that 79-year-old Cosby has a pattern of assaulting women after incapacitating them, Cosby’s defense worked Monday to undermine Johnson’s credibility.
Striving to give the jury confidence in their witness, the government on Tuesday called up Johnson’s mother.
Patrice Sewell had been living in Los Angeles in the 1990s when her daughter worked at the William Morris Agency, where Cosby was a client. She testified about meeting Cosby after a show in 1991, saying her daughter was "proud to introduce her family to Cosby.”
But Sewell recalled getting a call in 1996 from an upset Johnson.
“She said they were telling lies about her and that Mr. Cosby was trying to get her fired,” Sewell said of her daughter’s employer, William Morris.
Things got worse a few weeks later, Sewell continued.
“She called me and her father, and she kept looking down, and she said that Mr. Cosby had asked her to meet him at the Bel-Air Hotel at lunch,” Sewell testified.
Sewell echoed her daughter’s testimony about Cosby greeting Johnson at his bungalow, wearing just a robe and slippers, and giving her a pill, then checking under her tongue to make sure she swallowed it.
“Did he do anything to you,” Sewell remembered asking. She said Johnson responded that she "woke up on the bed and was disheveled and she left.”
“I knew that wasn't all of the story,” Sewell added.
Sewell told the court that her daughter "changed considerably” after leaving Cosby’s bungalow. “Her self-esteem was low … she was uncomfortable around people,” Sewell said.
As to why they did not contact the police, Sewell testified Johnson’s "father didn't want her to be humiliated."
During cross-examination, Liner Law attorney Angela Agrusa noted that Johnson is represented by media maven Gloria Allred, and told that same story on "The Dr. Phil Show" and to CNN's Don Lemon.
"So your most recent recollection,” Agrusa said, “is really what you saw on TV? Correct?"
“Yes," Sewell said.