In a never-before-seen deposition from 2005, disgraced comedian Bill Cosby explains in his own words how he used his fame, fortune and powerful sedatives to prey on vulnerable women – and then paid them off to keep his wife from finding out.
Interviewed in a Philadelphia hotel over four days by a lawyer acting on behalf of a 30-year-old Temple University employee Andrea Constand, Cosby admitted to engaging Constand in a conversation about her father’s cancer with the sole aim of then having sex with her.
The bombshell deposition, unearthed by the New York Times, goes on to reveal how the disgraced comedian: Telephoned Constand and told her to tell her mother ‘about the orgasm’ because he didn’t want her to think of him as a ‘dirty old man’.
The deposition was thought to have been confidential as part of the lawsuit settlement, but the New York Times obtained the documents through a court-reporting service, where it was publicly available. Primarily he spoke of Constand, but also of other victims, including a 19-year-old model who sent him a poem and ended up on his couch where she pleasured him with lotion.
After describing a sexual act he had with Constand, Cosby explained why he believed it to be consensual.
“I walk her out. She does not look angry. She does not say to me, don’t ever do that again,” he said. “She doesn’t walk out with an attitude of a huff, because I think that I’m a pretty decent reader of people and their emotions in these romantic sexual things, whatever you want to call them.”
Constand’s lawyer, Dolores M. Troiani, accused Cosby of ‘making light of a very serious situation’.
“That may very well be,” Cosby responded.
Cosby has repeatedly denied all alleged sexual assault, though dozens of women have accused him of such acts. And although he’s had the support of several public figures throughout the allegations, this 1,000-page deposition could change people’s views.
During the deposition, he described frustration with Constand after she failed to follow his advice of pursuing sports broadcasting.
“Here’s a mentor, Bill Cosby, who is in the business, Bill Cosby, who happens to know something about what to do and Andrea is not picking up on it,” he said.
Cosby also described an early moment in their courtship, when he arranged an intimate meal at his Pennsylvania home and they were out of sight from his chef.
“I take her hair and I pull it back and I have her face like this,” he said. “And I’m talking to her… And I talked to her about relaxing, being strong. And I said to her, come in, meaning her body.”
Cosby said he refrained from intercourse because he didn’t want women to fall in love with him. He said it “is something that I feel the woman will succumb to more of a romance and more of a feeling, not love, but it’s deeper than a playful situation.”
He added that he was not in love with Constand.