“I wanted a change in my life,” she said. Constand moved back home to Pickering, Ontario, just east of Toronto, leaving Temple not because of the Cosby incident, she told investigators, but because of more general dissatisfaction. Constand said it happened in March, but later said it happened earlier, an imprecision that experts say is not unusual for victims of sexual assault. In her first statement to the police, Ms. Constand’s recollection of when the encounter occurred. Cosby as she left to drive home.ĭefense lawyers are expected to emphasize discrepancies in Ms. She remembered a largely wordless parting - just an “all right” from Mr. The jury came to their decision in just two days. So Constand became the lone accuser who brought criminal charges.
Many of these cases happened outside the 12-year statute of limitations. “We’re here because we want to seek the truth.” At this point, more than 50 women had come forward with similar accusations of sexual misconduct. “Andrea Constand made up these fantastical stories in order to get rich.” A criminal investigation was reopened in 2015. Cosby’s defense team used that to paint her her as a scheming former lover. She later filed a civil suit and got a settlement of over $3 million.
Constand reported the attack to the police a year later, but prosecutors decided not to charge Cosby at the time. In 2004, Constand says Cosby assaulted her at his Pennsylvania mansion after giving her three pills that left her frozen. Over the next two years, the pair had a friendly relationship. She was a star high school basketball player and had dreams of playing professionally. Cosby was the university’s most famous alum and a trustee. She was 29 years old at the time, and worked for the women’s basketball team at Temple University. “I feel like my faith in humanity is restored.” Constand and Cosby’s story started more than 15 years ago in Philadelphia. And not only on #MeToo, but in a court of law.” She’s the only woman among more than 50 others whose case against Cosby has resulted in a conviction. This is Andrea Constand, the woman whose sexual assault complaint against Bill Cosby brought down the man once known as “America’s dad.” “Finally, we can say: Women are believed. He was sentenced to three to 10 years in prison on Tuesday. Transcript The Woman Who Brought Down Bill Cosby Andrea Constand is the only woman among more than 50 accusers whose complaint against Mr. Cosby described sexual encounters between consenting adults. In his deposition and in questioning by the police, Mr. “I never really thought he would have hit on me. Both times she brushed him off, she said. Cosby twice made passes at her during meetings at his home, she said, one time unbuttoning her pants. She was gay, though she never discussed that directly with Mr. “We were not involved in any romantic relationship.” “We were friendly,” she would later tell investigators. She traveled to New York to see a jazz concert at which he appeared and to Connecticut, where he performed at Foxwoods Resort Casino. They exchanged gifts, and she made several visits to his home, sometimes for dinner parties. University of Arizona Athletics/Arizona Board of Regents Constand during her four years playing basketball for the University of Arizona in the 1990s. And her account, along with how she tells it, will be critically important, not only to the outcome of the case and to the Cosby legacy but also to the many other women who view her as their last chance for justice.
Constand is sure to confront the sort of intense scrutiny that most people do when publicizing claims of sexual assault. Many of the other women never called the police, or when they considered it, found that the statute of limitations had expired.īy coming forward, Ms. Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted her at his home outside Philadelphia in 2004, is the only woman whose complaint has resulted in criminal charges.
Though more than 40 women have accused Bill Cosby of sexual assault, the task of convincing a jury that he is a sexual predator when his criminal trial begins next month will largely fall to just one - Andrea Constand. Cosby’s accusers and see a timeline of the case. Bill Cosby was found guilty of sexually assaulting Andrea Constand.