Cosby Trial Opens With Another Cosby Accuser Recounting 1996 Assault
"Trust, betrayal, and the inability to consent. That's what this case is about ...
The sexual assault trial against Bill Cosby opened Monday with the testimony of a woman who claimed under oath that Cosby assaulted her in 1996.
The trial alleges Cosby assaulted Andrea Costand in 2004.
“Trust, betrayal, and the inability to consent. That’s what this case is about … This is a case about a man, this man,” said Assistant District Attorney Kristen Feden, pointing to Cosby, “who used his power and his fame and his previously-practiced method of placing a young trusting woman in an incapacitated state so that he could sexually pleasure himself so that she couldn’t say no.”
Kelly Johnson, who worked for Cosby’s agent, was the first witness called by the prosecution. She said she went to see Cosby, who was dressed in a bathrobe and slippers.
“There was a little back and forth — with him telling me that I needed to relax … and I said, ‘What is it?’ And he wouldn’t tell me what it is, and he said, ‘Trust me, would I ever give you anything to hurt you?’” said Johnson.
“He held his hand like this,” she said, clenching her fist. “He opened his hand and there was a big white pill in his palm.”
Johnson said she tried to fake taking the pill, but Cosby persisted.
She quoted him as saying, “Open your mouth. Lift up your tongue.’ And I did and there it was.”
She said after taking the pill she felt “underwater.” She made a trip to the bathroom and tried to read the pill bottles there to learn what she had taken.
“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, explaining she rejoined Cosby in the lounge of his Los Angeles bungalow but later passed out.
She woke up in the bedroom with Cosby, which is where she was assaulted, she testified.
Under cross-examination, she said she never reported the incident because she was concerned for her job.
“I was humiliated and embarrassed. I was very afraid because I have a secret about the greatest celebrity in the world at that time,” she said. “And it was just … me — my word against his.”
Although several other women have accused Cosby of sexual assault, Johnson was the only other accuser besides Costand who was allowed by Judge Steven O’Neill to take the stand. The prosecution’s goal is to establish a pattern of what its court filings call “prior bad acts.”
Costand, who is Cosby’s accuser in his criminal trial, will be testifying later in the trial.
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