Stemming from Alleged January 2004 Sexual Assault of former Temple University Employee Andrea Constand
"America’s Dad" admitted in a civil deposition of plying women with Quaaludes he wanted to have sex with
An arrest warrant has been issued for entertainer Bill Cosby for allegedly drugging and sexually assaulting former Temple employee Andrea Constand at his Elkins Park, Pennsylvania mansion in January 2004, Montgomery County District Attorney-Elect Kevin Steele said at a Wednesday press conference.
Cosby is expected to be arraigned later this afternoon in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania.
The case sets the stage for perhaps the biggest Hollywood celebrity trial of the mobile-all-the-time era and could send the 78-year-old Cosby to prison in the twilight of his life and barrier-breaking career.
Prosecutors accused him of plying former Temple University employee Andrea Constand with pills and wine, then penetrating her with his fingers without her consent, while she was drifting in and out of consciousness, unable to resist or cry out.
She was “frozen, paralyzed, unable to move,” Steele said. In court papers, prosecutors said the drugs were the cold medicine Benadryl or some other, unidentified substance. Steele noted that Cosby has admitted giving Quaaludes to women he wanted to have sex with.
"A prosecutor's job is to follow the evidence wherever it leads and whenever it comes to light," Steele said. "Upon examination of all the evidence, today we are able to seek justice on behalf of the victim."
Cosby was a fatherly figure off camera as well, serving as a public moralist and public scold, urging young people to pull up their saggy pants and start acting responsibly.
Steele said that Constand "came to consider Mr. Cosby her mentor and her friend."
Andrea Constand
Constand, who worked for the women’s basketball team at Temple, where Cosby was a trustee and proud alumnus, said she was assaulted after going to his home in January 2004 for some career advice.
Then-District Attorney Bruce Castor declined to charge Cosby, saying at the time that the comedian and his accuser could be portrayed in “a less than flattering light.” This year, Castor said that if the damning allegations in Constand’s lawsuit had been known at the time, “we might have been able to make a case.”
Constand was not available for comment but one of her attorneys expressed gratitude toward the prosecutor.
"Obviously we appreciate the expression of confidence in her," says Dolores Troiani of her client, Constand, 42, who is now a massage therapist in Ontario, Canada. "We'll have to see what happens. We hope justice will be done. We will cooperate fully."
Cosby has previously said what happened between him and Constand was consensual, but in new court filings last summer Constand said she was in a relationship with a woman at the time. She also called Cosby a "narcissist" who missed cues that she's gay.
The statute of limitations to charge Cosby runs out in January.
Troiani said in September that if prosecutors decided to arrest Cosby for the alleged assault, Constand would fully cooperate.
"I think she's a very strong lady," Troiani said. "She'll do whatever she needs to do, whatever they ask of her."
So far, more than 50 women have accused the entertainer of drugging and/or sexually assaulting them. (Cosby has vehemently denied all of the allegations). The warrant comes just two weeks after Cosby filed defamation lawsuits against several of those accusers, who have filed defamation lawsuits of their own against him.
Of those lawsuits Troiani would only say, "I think this arrest warrant speaks for itself. I don't think I have to talk any louder than they have."
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