Police Re-Enact Cosby’s Assault Interview for Jury

He told police that the the sole purpose of the calls was to "tell what kind of medication of I gave her daughter." 

“I told her, I think I gave her some pills,” Cosby had said, admitting in the interview that he said he would write the name of the medication down on a piece of paper and mail it to them. 

"We talked about her inability to sleep,” Cosby continued, as quoted by Schaffer.

"She can't sleep … so I came down with what I use, Benadryl,” he added.

Cosby claimed he had used Benadryl for five years, finding it helpful for when he was in "different cities and had the time turned around."

He said he felt "comfortable doing that," meaning giving Constand the pills.

[blockquote author="Bill Cosby, 2005 interview with Cheltenham, Pennsylvania, police" style="null"]I told her to put Andrea on the phone … and guaranteed to her mother, that there was no penile penetration, there was only petting."[/blockquote]

Cosby did not answer the police’s questions, however, about wine being consumed that night. "I do not recall … not that I know of,” Cosby had said, adding his recollection that Constand had drunk red wine and cognac at his home on previous occasions. 

When asked if Constand ever asked him to stop the petting, or if she told him she was unable to see or move, Cosby replied, “no.”

When asked if she ever became angry, Cosby responded, "No, not that I can tell.”

The comedian did say Constand had asked him to stop “French kissing” at one of their get-togethers, and that he had stopped.

When asked if he ejaculated on any occasion, Cosby responded, “No, sir.” 

Cosby’s defense attorney Brian McMonagle seized on these points during cross-examination. He asked Schaffer whether the interview showed that, during sexual encounters with Cosby, “Constand told him to stop and he did — isn’t that correct?" 

“Yeah, he’s a real gentlemen there, sir," Schaffer said.

Schaffer fired back again when McMonagle questioned if there is any evidence that Cosby forced Constand to take the Benadryl.

"But she thought it was herbal," Schaffer said.

[blockquote author="Sgt. Richard Schaffer with the Cheltenham Police Department" style="null"]Yeah, he’s a real gentlemen there, sir."[/blockquote]

Cosby is quoted in the transcript as saying he felt like Constand’s “mentor,” but that she appeared to suffer from a learning disorder.

“Andrea was not able to connect things" or think clearly, Cosby had told police. He noted that he and Constand exchanged gifts during their relationship and spoke on the phone, even after she moved back to Canada.

"Was this a social relationship or a romantic relationship with Andrea,” the police had asked Cosby in 2005.

“Both," Cosby had said. 

The transcript shows that Cosby also told police about the night he and Constand lay in his hotel room bed together at the Fox Woods casino in Connecticut. "I held her in my arms and we talked,” Cosby had said, claiming that this lasted for two hours.

On cross-examination, Cosby’s defense attorney Brian McMonagle highlighted some of the ways Constand’s testimony this week differed from what she told police in 2005.

She had indicated in 2005 that she had never been alone with Cosby before, but that proved false, McMonagle said, as did the date of the alleged assault.

Though Constand had said the date “may have been March 16, 2004," she then changed the date to mid-January to mid-February of that year.

Given the opportunity to look over the original police report and make corrections, Constand had also crossed out a line that says “the cognac was fantastic,” McMonagle said.

Another line, "we laid down on the bed beside each other,” was crossed out and changed to "we relaxed on the bed."

"People are allowed to make changes,” Schaffer interjected.

"I wouldn't suggest otherwise,” McMonagle said with a smile.

McMonagle also touched on the lengthy delay between Constand’s initial report and 79-year-old Cosby’s trial. He noted Montgomery County District Attorney Bill Castor had worked on the original case with Risa Furman, an ADA at the time who is now a judge in Montgomery County.

Constand is the only one of Cosby’s dozens of accusers whose claims are not too old to prosecute.

When the county shelved her case in 2005, she sued Cosby in civil court, ultimately reaching a financial settlement.

Though the details of this case were sealed, a federal judge released incriminating deposition testimony from Cosby in 2015 amid renewed interest in the case. Fueled by a stand-up bit about Cosby that went viral, women across the country began coming forward in recent years with claims against Cosby, some dating back to the 1970s.

Cosby was arrested shortly after the public got hold of his deposition testimony about giving women quaaludes before having sex with them.

[blockquote author="Bill Cosby, unsealed civil deposition testimony from 2005" style="null"]"I didn't touch the orifice. I just rubbed her hair line … she rubbed my penis … I heard her moan and thought she had an orgasm." [/blockquote]

Prosecutors introduced this deposition to the jury Thursday after calling its last witness of the day, James Reape, a major-crimes detective who has worked for Montgomery County since 1998.

With District Attorney Kevin Steele leading the questioning, Reape read aloud the answers Cosby gave about what he did to Constand after giving her Benadryl.

Cosby said he had "tested" sexual contact with Constand first by touching her on her face, her buttocks and her stomach.

By rubbing her stomach, Cosby said, "it was a questionable zone,” and his physical way of "asking her" for acceptance.

When she didn't say no, Cosby said, "then I went to the area between acceptance and rejection … that's around her hair line, where the pubic hair grows."

Cosby testified that he rubbed her vagina next. "I didn't touch the orifice,” he said. “I just rubbed her hair line … she rubbed my penis … I heard her moan and thought she had an orgasm."

Cosby said this made him happy, and that he and Constand got up and walked toward his bedroom.

"Andrea had flat breasts … I pulled up her bra … and I sucked them for about 4 seconds,” Cosby said.

He claimed that Contand said "stop" at that point, so he did.   

In another part of the deposition, Cosby testified: “It was misinterpreted that I drugged her.”

He said he had given her the pills because he and Constand had talked about her trying to learn to relax.

“I wanted her to be comfortable enough to go to sleep after we had our necking session,” he said.

[blockquote author="Bill Cosby, unsealed 2005 civil deposition testimony" style="null"]It was misinterpreted that I drugged her."[/blockquote]

Denying that he gave Constand three full doses of Benadryl, Cosby said he brought her a whole pill and broke another one in half.

Constand has said she asked if the pills were herbal, and that he agreed, but Cosby denied in his deposition that she asked this. He admitted that he called the pills "three friends," and didn't tell Constand what they were because he "didn't think of it," and just wanted her to relax.  

"We began to touch, pet and kiss," Cosby said "We rubbed, I kissed, we stopped. I moved her to the position of down, and we laid down in a spoon position. She then pushed my hand in further and she was wet when I went in. I feel her make a sound, like an orgasm. I sit between her torso and he thighs and I ask her to please take a nap … and I go to bed."

Cosby said he went downstairs in the morning when he woke up. Seeing Constand awake as well, he said he gave her a blueberry muffin and some tea.

It is unclear whether the trial will focus on Constand’s sexual orientation, but her attorneys noted in past court filings that she was in a relationship with another woman at the time of her assault.

Cosby’s defense team has been working throughout the trial meanwhile to show that Constand and Cosby were romantically involved. Projecting a phone log on the screen for jurors this afternoon, the defense’s McMonagle highlighted that Constand called Cosby twice, at 4:42 p.m. and 7:53 p.m., on Feb. 14, 2004, Valentine’s Day.

Assistant District Attorney M. Stewart Ryan nipped this in the bud on redirect, showing that on the same day Constand made calls to Temple’s basketball coach, Dawn Staley, and Staley's son.

“Mr. Schaffer, what do you think they talked about on Valentine's Day,” the prosecutor asked to giggles in the courtroom. 

In the deposition, Cosby testified that his "romantic interest" in Constand began "from the first time he saw her.”

Though Cosby proudly announced in the deposition that he had been "married 41 years,”  he also admitted that he did not want his wife to know about his interest in Constand.

He testified that he decided to get close to Constand by gaining her trust "in a friendship."

Cosby explained that his definition of a romantic interest meant "permission or nonpermission to engage in something of being more than friends."

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