Cosby Defense Team Highlights Accuser’s Early Fumbles

Constand clarified this point in light of her admission that she told her friend Williams that Cosby had made a pass at her. “He never disclosed to me that he had a romantic interest in me,” she said.

"But didn't you change your hair and makeup for him?" Agrusa asked.

"It was for my headshots … to change my look," Constand replied.

Later on redirect Assistant District Attorney Kristen Feden had Constand read aloud her police statement to contradict the suggestion that her interest in Cosby was not platonic.

 "No, it was not a romantic time," Constand read.

Feden also brought up the pills that Cosby allegedly told Constand were "herbal" and could "help her relax."

"Have you ever taken Benadryl?" Feden asked. "Did you ever consent to taking any pills that were not herbal on the night of the assault?” 

“No," Constand replied to both questions.

From his seat at the defense table, Cosby hunched over in his chair, staring blankly at the floor, as Feden walked Constand through the graphic details of her report.

"Without your consent, he then inserted his fingers into YOUR VA-GIN-A,” Feden shouted, dragging out the last word for emphasis.

"Yes," Constand said somberly.

"After you were incapacitated he touched your breasts, correct?" Feden asked.

"Yes."

"And he made you touch his penis, correct?" Feden pushed on.

"Yes," Constand said.

"And you didn't consent to ANY of this? CORRECT?" the prosecutor shouted.

"Yes," Constand said.

Agrusa also grilled Constand about inconsistencies in her initial report to police about the night of the assault. In 2005, Constand told police in Canada, where she was living at the time, that the assault happened on March 16, 2004.

Six days later she told the Cheltenham police that she was assaulted sometime between mid-January and mid-February.

“Ma’am, I was mistaken,” Constand told Agrusa this morning about the date change.  

Constand’s initial statement to Canadian police on Jan. 13 alleged that the assault at Cosby’s home happened after they had gone to dinner on March 16 with representatives of Philadelphia’s Central High School.

Agrusa noted that before they went to police, however, Constand’s mother in Canada called a guidance counselor at Philadelphia Central High School to confirm the date of the dinner. That same day in January 2005, Constand’s mother purchased the device she used to record her phone conversation with Cosby.

When Constand spoke  to the Cheltenham police over the phone on Jan. 22, however, she changed her story, saying she was not assaulted after the dinner.

“I recalled as best I could,” Constand said.

Agrusa next asked about phone records that show Constand made a series of phone calls on March 16, proving she could not have been assaulted that day.

The attorney noted that Constand called former co-workers from Temple University in 2005 to get those phone records.

Constand denied Agrusa's implication that she was calling around, "trying to get the dates right."

“No, ma'am,” she said.

It did not take long on redirect, however, for Assistant District Attorney Kristen Feden to undercut the “inferences” she said were made in opposing counsel's five-hour cross-examination.

Though Agrusa focused on phone records that show Constand called Cosby 53 times in the months after her alleged assault, Feden emphasized that an outgoing call to Constand’s own number preceded nearly each of the calls to Cosby.

“Back in the day,” Feden reminded jurors, "you would have to call your own number to check your voicemail.”

"Every time it looked like Constand was reaching out to Cosby, she was really just returning his voicemails," Feden said.

"He was on the board of trustees at [her] employment,” she added.

Once Constand left Temple on March 31, 2004, the ADA noted, she no longer had a reason to speak to Cosby. There were calls in which Constand confronted Cosby on the sexual assault, Feden said, but “there were no calls between March 31 and August."

Agrusa was more successful, however, in emphasizing the calls Constand made to Cosby from Canada, where she secured tickets for her family to see him perform.

"You didn't leave that show early,” Agrusa asked Constand, “or make up an excuse to stay home, did you?" 

“No," Constand replied, conceding that she did attend the show with her family.

After afternoon break, Andrea Constand’s mother, Gianna Constand, took the stand. Short in stature, she wore a bright yellow top and blue blazer and spoke with a soft voice.

District Attorney Kevin Steele led the questioning, establishing that Gianna Constand met Cosby after a show in Canada in 2004 – but she couldn’t remember the name of the room where the meeting took place.  "Oh, dear, I don't know," she said.

"The Backroom, or Back Stage," Judge O'Neill suggested.

"Oh, that's it," she said with a smile. "Sorry, I had lost my train of thought."

The courtroom laughed along with her, and the jury smiled at her during her testimony.

"We were excited to go and see him," she said. Noticing that Cosby always wore sweatshirts, she had gone to the mall and bought an extra-large sweatshirt for him, putting it in a gift bag.

She said during the show, she noticed her daughter "wasn't paying any attention" and appeared like she "didn't want to be there."

She claims they did not stay until the end.

Gianna Constand then corroborated her daughter's testimony, recalling changes in sleep patterns.

"She was always more nervous," she said.  "She screamed after the nightmares," which Gianna recalled happening "very frequently."

"Mom, I think I have PTSD," Constand told her mother, according to Gianna’s testimony. Her daughter confided that, "He [Cosby] drugged me and raped me."

"I believed and I know, what she told me was right," Gianna said.

Gianna tried to call Cosby, but he didn’t answer.

When Cosby returned her phone call, she talked to him for over two hours, grilling him on what medication he had given Andrea and what he had done afterward.

He responded that he “couldn't read the name on the prescription bottle," but that he would mail her the name of it.

She said Cosby called her "mom" on the phone.

"He said that he was touching her breast," Gianna said, but he then added, "Don't worry, Mom, there was not penal penetration, just digital penetration."

Gianna said he tried to make it sound like Andrea consented.

She claims Cosby said, "Mom, she even had an orgasm."

When Gianna asked Cosby why he had sexually assaulted her daughter, he “admitted he was a sick man,” she said.

Cosby reportedly apologized and offered to pay for therapy for Andrea.

While Gianna testified, Cosby sat with one hand holding up his head on the desk.

When District Attorney Kevin Steele asked Gianna if she wished she had done anything differently, she responded, "Yes, I wish I recorded it."

The next day, she went to Radio Shack and bought a recording device for future calls.

One of her recorded calls was played for the court.

In the recording, Cosby asked about Andrea being interested in sports broadcasting.  "I would be willing to...because she has to go to school and hone those skills...but if she wanted to do that, I would be willing to meet with you guys, lay out what I think....and pay for the schooling...as long as she maintains a 3.0 average, she'll be fine," he said.

During the conversation, Cosby heard a beeping and asked if Gianna was recording him. She said the sound was her parrot.

"I do have a parrot, and his name is Ozzy," she said.

Members of the jury giggled.

Before the end of the recorded conversation, Gianna asked if Cosby was going to send her "the piece of paper," and Cosby evaded answering, instead asking to just "set up a meeting."

Gianna said her motive in recording Cosby "was to go back to that conversation where he made admissions."

She also expressed worry over what the “Cosby Camp” would do if her daughter’s accusations went public.

Breaking into tears, she said, "I was very upset because, you know, he mentored her, and they were good friends, she viewed him like a father. And he is 10 years older than her own father."

"I was distraught that he did that to her, that he drugged her," she said through sobs. "He betrayed her."

Agrusa led cross-examination, asking if Gianna knew about her daughter’s intimate relationship with Cosby.

"There was NO intimate relationship," Gianna fired back.

"Emotionally intimate," Agrusa clarified.

Agrusa then reminded them that they had known Cosby was a married man, inferring that he apologized merely because he had relations outside of his marriage.

After questioning Gianna about lying to Cosby about the beeping on the recording and whether she had helped her daughter find dates for the reported assault, Gianna said, "It seems to me that you're asking irrelevant questions" for the purpose of "testing my memory."

Although those in the courtroom chuckled, Judge O’Neill admonished Gianna to answer the questions without comment.

Agrusa asked her final question: "You love your daughter, don't you?"

"We love all of our children," Gianna said.

That concluded the day's testimony.

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