bill cosby

Bill Cosby’s Damning Testimony Will Be Allowed in His Sexual-Assault Trial

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Cosby. Photo: KENA BETANCUR/AFP/Getty Images

Bill Cosby’s own admissions of drugging women prior to sex will be permitted in his sexual-assault trial. On Monday, a judge ordered that Cosby’s damning testimony taken from his accuser Andrea Constand’s 2005 civil lawsuit against him, which was settled out of court in 2006 and unsealed in July 2015, will be allowed in court for the prosecution to use during his trial. In the deposition, Cosby confessed to offering young women whom he intended to have sex with prescription Quaaludes and alcohol and said he paid off his accusers, including Constand. (Cosby did not say whether the women consented to the drugs, and claimed the sex was consensual.) Other documents revealed Cosby’s attempts to cover up bad press. Last year, prosecutors used the unsealed testimony as evidence to reopen Constand’s criminal case against Cosby. His legal team had been fighting to keep the jury from hearing the testimony. Cosby, who has recently claimed to be legally blind and therefore unable to recognize his accusers, is currently awaiting trial for allegedly drugging and sexually assaulting Constand in 2004.

Cosby’s Damning Testimony to Be Used at Trial