The victim in the case, Andrea Constand, reported the sexual assault in 2005. Steele said that Constand “came to consider Mr Cosby her mentor and her friend.”
He said that Cosby “made two sexual advances at her that were rejected.”
“Mr Cosby urged her to take pills and to drink wine, the effect of which left her unable to [rebuff his advances].”
Andrea Constand, now 42 works as a massage therapist in her native Canada, and has agreed to have her name become public.
Her lawyer Dolores Troiani, said earlier this year “She’s a very strong lady. She’ll do whatever they request of her.”
It was reported that at the time of the alleged assault Constand, who is gay, was dating a woman.
Constand, who worked for the women’s basketball team at a University where Cosby was a trustee said she was assaulted after going to his home in January 2004 for some career advice. She alleges she was digitally raped.
She tried to press charges a year after the incident but police could not make the case stick. Constand settled a lawsuit against Cosby in 2006 on confidential terms.
Earlier this year, news organisations petitioned a judge to unseal documents from the Constand lawsuit. In them Cosby testified that he obtained quaaludes in the 1970s to give to women he wanted to have sex with.
He denied giving women drugs without their knowledge and said he had used the now-banned sedative “the same as a person would say, ‘Have a drink.'”
In the deposition, Cosby said he put his hands down Constand’s pants that night and fondled her, taking her silence as a “green light.”
Constand said she was semi-conscious after he gave her pills he said would relax her.
“I don’t hear her say anything. And I don’t feel her say anything. And so I continue and I go into the area that is somewhere between permission and rejection. I am not stopped,” Cosby testified.
Prosecutors reopened the case several months ago as the testimony was unsealed and as dozens of other women came forward with similar accusations.
Constand said Cosby gave her three blue pills, which he told her was herbal medication for her anxiety.
She said after she took the pills her “knees began to shake, her limbs felt immobile, she felt dizzy and weak, and she began to feel only barely conscious.” and then Cosby “touched her breasts and vaginal area, rubbed his penis against her hand and digitally penetrated her.”
She said in her deposition that she woke up hours later, “feeling raw in and around her vaginal area,” with her clothes “in disarray.”
Constand said Cosby was “in his bathrobe.” He then left her in the home by herself.
Cosby, who has been the subject of more than 50 accusations of sexual assault last month fired back last month against seven of his accusers, filing a defamation counter-suit against them.
He has constantly denied any wrongdoing.
Cosby came to prominence as the loving father figure in the hit TV show The Cosby Show.
In late 2014 comedian Hannibal Buress brought the allegations back to light when he mocked Cosby as a hypocrite and called him a rapist during a standup routine.
That opened the floodgates on even more allegations.
Women in the dozens came forward and described being offered a drink by Cosby and waking up to find they had apparently been sexually assaulted. Cosby, through his representatives, accused some of the women of trying to extract money from him or get ahead in show business.
His wife, Camille Cosby, who met her husband when she was 19, has constantly supported him, saying: “ The man I met, and fell in love with, and whom I continue to love, is the man you all knew through his work. He is a kind man … and a wonderful husband, father and friend.”
The TV star has faced a litany of legal problems including defamation and sex-abuse lawsuits filed across several US states. But as for criminal charges, many of the alleged assaults date back decades, and the statute of limitations has expired in nearly every case.
Until now.
Many hope that these current charges see the 78-year-old finally face up to his accusers – and with a potential sentence of five to 10 years behind bars finally bring justice for so many women.
A timeline of victims:
1. Kristina Ruehli
Year of Alleged Incident: 1965Ruehli claimed in an interview with Philadelphia Magazine that Cosby sexually assaulted her when she was a 22-year-old secretary at a talent agency.
2. Carla Ferrigno
Year of Alleged Incident: 1967Carla Ferrigno – wife of The Incredible Hulk star Lou Ferrigno, claims she was sexually assaulted in Cosby’s basement.
3. Joan Tarshis
Year of Alleged Incident: 1969Tarshis went public in Nov. 2014 with allegations that Bill Cosby had raped her in 1969 when she was a 19-year-old comedy writer “I was sitting up writing one second, and the next second I was lying down on the couch having my underwear taken off,” Tarshis alleged in an interview with CBS News. She went on to claim that Cosby raped her twice.
4. Cindra Ladd
Year of Alleged Incident: 1969In an op-ed written for The Huffington Post Ladd claims that she was drugged and that she awoke naked in bed with Cosby in a white robe in the room with her.
5. Victoria Valentino
Year of Alleged Incident: 1970Valentino, a former Playboy playmate, said in an interview with The Washington Post that Cosby forced her to perform oral sex and then, raped her.
6. Autumn Burns
Year of Alleged Incident: 1970Burns further alleges that Cosby raped her in his hotel suite.
7. Louisa Mortiz
Year Of Alleged Incident: 1971Actress Louisa Mortiz, claims that Bill Cosby forced her to perform oral sex on him in the dressing room of Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show in 1971.
8. Donna Motsinger
Year of Alleged Incident: 1971Motsinger claims that Cosby drugged and raped her while she was working as a jazz club waitress in Sausalito, Calif.
9. Katherine McKee
Year of Alleged Incident: Early 1970sMcKee claims that Cosby raped her in a Michigan hotel room in the early 1970s.
10. Helen Hayes
Year Of Alleged Incident: 1973Hayes said “His behavior was like that of a predator.”
11. Charlotte Fox
Year of Alleged Incident: Mid-1970sPeople reports. “The next thing I remember was that I was sort of awake, in a bed, with no clothes on and there was Mr. Cosby, in a robe, crawling from the bottom of the bed.”
12. Judy Huth
Year Of Alleged Incident: 1974Huth said she was 15 when she was raped.
13. Tamara Green
Year of Alleged Incident: 1975Green first publicly shared her story on the Today show in 2005
“To go for help and be dismissed because he’s very cool and famous and you are not,” she wrote. “It is crushing and you are a victim all over again.”
14. Marcella Tate
Year of Alleged Incident: 1975Tate claims that Cosby gave her a drink that caused her head to get “cloudy.” Tate claims that she woke up in an unfamiliar bed the next day, allegedly with a naked Cosby in bed with her.
15. Therese Serignese
Year of Alleged Incident: Mid-1970sSeringese claims that Cosby pressured her into taking Quaaludes and then pressured her into agreeing to engage in sexual activity.
16. Shawn Brown
Year of Alleged Incident: Mid-1970sBrown said Cosby drugged and raped her.
17. “Elizabeth”
Year of Alleged Incident: 1976“Elizabeth” a flight attendant says he drugged her and raped her.
18. Joyce Emmons
Year of Alleged Incident: Late 1970sJoyce Emmons says he drugged her and raped her.
19. P.J. Masten
Year of Alleged Incident: 1979Masten alleges that she woke up in bed next to Cosby who was naked.
20. Linda Kirkpatrick
Year of Alleged Incident: Early 1980sKirkpatrick claims he served her spiked champagne and then sexually assaulted her.
21. Lynn Neal
Year of Alleged Incident: Early 1980s“I felt helpless and I couldn’t stop him.”
22. Janice Baker-Kinney
Year of Alleged Incident: Early 1980sBaker-Kinney made her allegations during a press conference held by attorney Gloria Allred on April 23, 2015.
23. Janice Dickinson
Year of Alleged Incident: 1982The 59-year-old supermodel told ET :
“The next morning I woke up, and I wasn’t wearing my pajamas, and I remember before I passed out that I had been sexually assaulted by this man,” she alleges. “Before I woke up in the morning, the last thing I remember was Bill Cosby in a patchwork robe, dropping his robe and getting on top of me. And I remember a lot of pain.”
24. Renita Chaney Hill
Years of Alleged Incident: 1982-1986Hill says that she doesn’t know if Cosby raped her because she was unconscious after drinking cocktails he allegedly served her.
25. Beth Ferrier
Years of Alleged Incident: Early to mid-1980sET reports that one night after she ended their months-long consensual affair, she was drinking a cup of coffee in Cosby’s dressing room in Denver. “He said, ‘Here’s your favourite coffee, something I made, to relax you,'” she says. And then she blacked out. When she came to, Ferrier claims that her clothes were disheveled and her bra unhooked.
26. Heidi Thomas
Year of Alleged Incident: 1984Thomas made her claims in an interview with CNN.
27. Beverly Johnson
Year of Alleged Incident: Mid-1980sSupermodel Beverly Johnson wrote for Vanity Fair alleging that she was drugged and almost attacked by Cosby after she auditioned for a role on The Cosby Show.
28. Sammie Mays
Year of Alleged Incident: Mid-’80sShe says she believes that she was raped by the comedian while unconscious.
29. Barbara Bowman
Year of Alleged Incident: 1986She made headlines when she penned an article for The Washington Post titled, “Bill Cosby raped me. Why did it take 30 years for people to believe my story?”
30. Lisa Jones
Year Of Alleged Incident: 1986Jones went public with her allegations to ET Canada on Dec. 1, 2014, where she further claimed that Cosby tried to sexually assault her. “He, out of nowhere, started to walk past me, and crouched in front of my knees, grabbed my legs, and tried to pull them apart… I just remember I was so shocked… All I wanted to do was get out of there because I was in an unsafe environment and that’s what I did.”
31. Chelan
Year Of Alleged Incident: 1986Chelan, claims Cosby drugged her and raped her.
32. Jena T.
Year of Alleged Incident: 1988Jena T. claims Cosby pressured her into an unwanted sexual position, and allegedly gave her $700 before she left.
33. Lisa
Year of Alleged Incident: 1988Lisa appeared on Dr. Phil where she accused Cosby of drugging and sexually assaulting her when she was 21.
34. Jewel Allison
Year(s) of Alleged Incident: Late-1980sIn an interview with The New York Daily News, Allison said, “There’s no such thing as America’s Dad… There’s just a man named Bill Cosby. He’s a very sick sociopath.”
35. Kacey
Year of Alleged Incident: Early 1990sKacey claims Cosby drugged her and raped her.
36. Angela Leslie
Year of Alleged Incident: 1992Leslie claims that the comedian tried to get her to drink a cocktail he had made her, but she didn’t drink from it.
37. Lili Bernard
Year of Alleged Incident: 1992Lili Bernard alleged that the comedian raped her during an encounter in the show’s studio and then threatened her.
38. Michelle Hurd
Year of Alleged Incident: 1995Michelle Hurd, best known for her work in Law & Order: SVU, claims that Cosby was very “inappropriate” with her when she had a small role in an episode of The Cosby Mysteries.
39. Lachelle Covington
Year of Alleged Incident: 2000Lachelle Covington, an actress on the sitcom Cosby, filed a police report against the comedian accusing him of making unwanted sexual advances toward her.
40. Andrea Constand
Year of Alleged Incident:January 2004Cosby has been arrested over this incident.
41. Chloe Goins
Year of Alleged Incident: 2008Goins, 24, claims that Cosby drugged her and sexually assaulted her during a party at the Playboy Mansion when she was 18 years old.
Source: ET News.
For help 24/7 for sexual assault call the DV and Sexual Abuse hotline: 1800 737 732
Top Comments
Finally. Respect for every one of Cosby's victims who've spoken the truth aloud. Thanks to police and legals for doing their job. Without charges it's felt a bit like teetering on the very edge of something, in darkness. Now at least theres a firm step towards the next.
How do you know they have spoken the truth?
We will find out soon. Cosby's lawyer just sent out the first 7 law suits to these females.Obviously it will cost him a fortune and he'll get nothing for it since these Rape Liars have nothing. The only reason to do it is to shut them up for good.
And there it is: How do you know... Maybe it fell in... Women just lie to esconce themselves in misogynist insults and threats etc
Please re-read to comprehend the bit where I've said "victims who've spoken the truth".
Well actually, that's not one of the reasons why females lie about rape at all
A US Air Force Colonel JAG was tasked with finding out why there seemed to be so many rapes in the Air Force.
What he found was that 66% of the rape allegations were lies. Of the 66%, 24% admitted straight away they lied. A further 27% admitted they lied under examination. and so on.
What the Colonel found was the most popular reason for lying was to avoid responsibility for infidelity. The next most popular was revenge. Extortion was in there too.
The Colonel also decided to investigate police precincts along the Eastern Sea Board to determine how different the Air Force was to civilian life. There wasn't any difference.
If you want to get a complete and understandable rendition in detail of what the Colonel did then I would suggest you get a book called The Myth of Male Power by Warren Farrel (ex feminist).
OR, you might ask ANY criminal Lawyer.
Do you ever wonder why the former (female) Magistrate O'Shane famously said of her 17 years on the bench that "A LOT of women manufacture stories about men" Do you think Ms O'Shane is a Liar? Why didn't she say a very tiny amount like 2% of rape complainants manufacture stories about men?
However, I realise you are not interested in reality because you are a misandrist. So be it. You just want to vilify and denigrate men and you don't care if you use lies to do it. Your feelings are more important to the world aren't they.
Huh? No one else thinks that is a reason females lie about rape.. How did you come to your conclusion?
Please explain how you know they are telling the truth? Did you know that Rape Liar dragging the mattress around was a victim who spoke the truth?
Well I've been slightly on the fence with this one, because whilst all of the women's stories seemed very compelling to me, I did think it is possible that because he is famous that some women might just be seeing it as an opportunity to make up a story. (before anyone has a go at me, I'm not saying they are, I am just saying that it is a possibility), however there are a couple of things that make me think these women are telling the truth:
Firstly, a number of them said they were drugged and weren't sure if they were raped. If they were making something up surely they would make worse allegations than that, so this to me has the ring of truth about it.
Secondly (but on the same note) some women have said they were assaulted but it wasn't intercourse, once again I think if these women were wanting to make something up they would use the worse allegation possibly and not just stop at "he digitally raped me".
Thirdly, the stories are all so similar, it seems to me that he had a particular scenario that he liked to repeat. (though admittedly that could also be women colluding with each other with the same story but for the reasons above I don't think they are lying)
Fourthly, he himself admits to having given qualudes to women. Why on earth would you give a woman a drug that would make her semi conscious unless you had ulterior motives?
Fifthly, has anyone noticed that a number of the women have a similar look, e.g. tall, lanky, elegant, similar bone structure? it seems he had a type.
Lastly, but most compelling, is what he now admits to is extremely damning:
"In the deposition, Cosby said he put his hands down Constand’s pants that night and fondled her, taking her silence as a “green light.”
“I don’t hear her say anything. And I don’t feel her say anything. And so I continue and I go into the area that is somewhere between permission and rejection. I am not stopped,” Cosby testified."
All of this makes me very sad for what these women suffered, and also the fact that I personally was a big fan of this man, I usually think I have a good radar for creepy people but am way off on this one, so I can totally understand why a woman would think she was safe alone with this guy. To think he could have had any woman he wanted without having to rape them, which just goes to prove that it wasn't about sex for him.