Bill Cosby trial told he made assistant swallow pill before she woke finding breasts exposed and actor ‘grunting’ behind her
THE first witness in the criminal sex trial against Bill Cosby broke down as she recalled an alleged assault by the TV star at the Bel Air hotel in 1996.
Sobbing TV agency assistant Kelly Johnson recalled how Cosby had invited her for lunch in a bungalow he had reserved at the luxury complex.
She told the court how he answered the door dressed in a bathrobe and slippers.
He tried to get her to drink wine telling her she "needed to relax" but she described herself as "not much of a drinker."
She then said "He opened his hand and there was a big white pill in his palm."
Johnson said she decided to pretend to take it, intending to hide it under her tongue and spit it out in the bathroom.
But when she pretended to swallow it with water he offered her wine and said: "Open your mouth. Lift up your tongue. And I did and there it was."
She then swallowed and then she said she felt ‘underwater.’
After swallowing the pill Johnson went to the bathroom to try to compose herself. She said that the sink area was ‘just covered with prescription bottles.’
"I was feeling frustrated with myself because for some reason I couldn’t read the bottles - I didn’t need glasses at the time."
She said she then lost consciousness and when she came to on the bed, her dress was pulled up from the bottom and her breasts exposed.
She claimed Cosby was lying behind her and she could hear ‘grunting sounds’
She said: "He put lotion in my hand. He made me touch his penis.";
Johnson said she felt ‘intimidated’ by Cosby and afraid as he had asked her not to tell her boss that she was meeting him outside the office.
Cosby is not charged with assaulting the witness, Kelly Johnson, but prosecutors are using her testimony to show that he followed a pattern of drugging women and then assaulting them.
She said she held off for years going public with the story for fear no one would take her word against someone she viewed as "the biggest celebrity in the world."
Cosby's trial for sexual assault against Andrea Constand opened in Pennsylvania as prosecutors painted the megastar turned pariah as a sexual predator who established trust with younger women before incapacitating them with drugs and wine.
In one of America's biggest celebrity trials in years, the pioneering black comedian faces three counts of aggravated indecent assault, which each carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in jail and a $25,000 fine.
The 79-year-old, for years feted by millions as "America's Dad" on "The Cosby Show" is on trial for allegedly drugging and sexually assaulting a university employee at his Philadelphia home 13 years ago.
Dressed in a navy suit, he sat next to his defence team at the Montgomery County Courthouse in the Philadelphia suburb of Norristown, starring in the direction of the jury or casting his eyes down.
Around 60 women have publicly accused the Emmy-winning television star and comedian of being a serial sexual predator for decades, ending his career and leaving him isolated by friends and celebrities.
Several of those accusers were in court on Monday, but his fate rests on the allegations of just one, Andrea Constand, related to just one encounter in January 2014.
It is the only criminal case against him as most of the alleged abuse happened too long ago to prosecute.
Constand, a 44-year-old Canadian, was at the time director of basketball operations at Temple University, where Cosby served on the Board of Trustees at the time of the alleged assault in January 2004.
"This man used his power and his fame and his previously practiced method of placing a young, trusting woman in an incapacitated state so he could sexually pleasure himself," said assistant district attorney Kristen Feden.
Cosby says he gave Constand Benadryl to relieve stress, insists their sexual relations were consensual and accuses her of lying.
"Trust, betrayal and inability to consent," Feden said.
"Because she was in that incapacitated state, she couldn't consent."
Feden said the trial would "shatter" illusions that Cosby was the real-life embodiment of his signature character, lovable obstetrician and father Cliff Huxtable, a role that smashed through racial barriers.
Keshia Knight Pulliam, who played his daughter Rudy on the 1984-1992 sitcom, attended the opening statements, but there was no sign of Cosby's wife, Camille.
The defence team lectured the jury on the high burden of proof and warned them not to get distracted by his fame or by "finger-pointing."
"The false accusation of sexual assault - it's an attack on human dignity, it's an attack on human innocence. It's not a distraction, it can destroy a man," said one of his lawyers, Brian McMonagle.
McMonagle urged the jury to see Cosby as "just a citizen," saying his infidelity as a husband had made him "vulnerable to accusations" and tore into Johnson, forcing her to admit there were parts of her original testimony that she could not remember 20 years later.
Constand, who is gay but who has testified in the past to having had relations with men, is expected to testify.
She initially settled the case with a civil suit in 2006, but the case was re-opened in 2015 when new evidence apparently came to light.
Ultimately, it comes down to her word against his.
The prosecution will lean on Cosby's words in a 2005 court deposition, in which he admitted obtaining sedatives with a view to having sex.
The defence savaged Constand's credibility, alleging that she was untruthful and painted their relationship as consensual, one that involved many meetings, and allegedly saw her call the star 53 times after the incident.
The seven-man, five-woman jury will be sequestered for the duration of the trial, which is expected to last about two weeks.