Ms Constand has said that she came to think of Mr Cosby as a “mentor and a friend” before she said he made unwanted sexual advances.
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Attorney Gloria Allred speaks to the media during a recess at the Montgomery County Courthouse for a preliminary hearing for Bill Cosby, Tuesday, May 24, 2016, in Norristown, Pa. Cosby was ordered to stand trial on sexual assault charges after a hearing that hinged on a decade-old police report.
Bill Cosby’s lawyers have outlined the questions his alleged victim is likely to face when the comedian faces trial on sexual assault charges.
Cosby faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted of aggravated indecent assault.
The former star posted bail at $1 million in the case last December but has yet to enter a plea.
District Judge Elizabeth McHugh ruled prosecutors had sufficient evidence to bring Cosby to trial at a hearing at Montgomery County Courthouse in Pennsylvania.
“Mr. Cosby is not guilty of any crime, and not one single fact presented by the commonwealth rebuts this truth”, his lawyers said in a statement afterward. Instead her story was heard through statements given to investigators in 2005. Previously, authorities have paraphrased her account and have quoted portions of Constand’s statement.
“Everything was blurry and dizzy”, Constand told police.
Constand, who was not in court, alleged she was given two pills to “take the edge off” and was later sexually assaulted by the actor, reports CNN. She said she later awoke with her bra askew and did not remember undoing it.
After sitting her down on the couch, Constand claimed in the passages read in court, Cosby fondled her breasts, put his fingers in her vagina and put her hand on his erect penis.
“We began to pet. touching and kissing with clothes on”, he told police in a 2005 interview read at the hearing. He told the police that the medication was over-the-counter Benadryl.
In his police statement, Cosby said that Constand never said “no” as he put his hand down her trousers.
Cosby settled with Constand for an undisclosed sum in 2006 after testifying behind closed doors about his extramarital affairs, his use of quaaludes to seduce women and his efforts to hide payments to former lovers from his wife.
But prosecutors reopened the criminal case past year after dozens of women leveled similar allegations and after Cosby’s sealed testimony in Constand’s lawsuit was made public.
Prosecutors also referred to a recently-unsealed deposition Cosby had previously given as part of Constand’s civil suit a decade ago, in which he admitted to obtaining sedatives to give to women he wanted to sleep with.
He is also fighting defamation lawsuits across the country for allegedly branding his accusers liars and is trying to get his homeowner insurance to pay his legal bills.
Cosby is next due in court for arraignment on 20 July, 2016.
The accusations have destroyed Cosby’s reputation, which he built during years of family-friendly comedy.
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Although dozens of women have accused Cosby of doing the same to them over several decdes, he has been charged only in Constand’s case. The defense will also try to keep them from testifying for the prosecution at trial.
