The mother of Bill Cosby accuser Andrea Costand testified Wednesday that after Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted her daughter, she moved home to live with her parents in Ontario, Canada — where she would sometimes wake up screaming in the middle of the night.
Alternating between giggles and cradling her head in her hands, depending on the tone of her testimony, Gloria Constand described several awful moments after her daughter moved home. At one point, Gloria Costand said, she and her daughter were on the phone with Cosby. Calling Gloria Costand “mom,” he provided graphic detail about what happened, she testified.
“Don’t worry, Mom, there was no penile penetration, only digital penetration,” Constand quoted Cosby as saying.
She also played an audio recording she secretly made of another phone call in which Cosby offered to pay for Andrea Costand’s future education. Prosecutors contend that he was trying to buy her off so she would stay silent.
Gloria Costand said her daughter told her that Cosby had assaulted her after worrying that she might have post-traumatic stress.
Dozens of women have accused Cosby of drugging and assaulting them, but this case is the only one that has gone to trial. Cosby has denied all of them accusations and said he was targeted because of his success.
Andrea Costand took the stand before her mother did on Wednesday, the third day of Cosby’s criminal trial. She held her ground as his defense team looked for inconsistencies in her account of Cosby drugging and assaulting her in January 2004.
Cosby attorney Angela Agrusa used Constand’s statements to police and phone records to try to discredit her testimony. She asked why Constand had not disclosed details of other one-on-one interactions with Cosby to police, and asked about 53 calls she said Costand made to Cosby from January to March 2004.
“I did not place that many, but there were several, yes,” Constand said, adding that she didn’t share some details with police because they didn’t ask for them.
Cosby is on trial for three charges of second-degree aggravated assault. Constand testified the actor gave her pills and sexually assaulted her in his home while she was the director of operations of women’s basketball at Temple University, where Cosby is an alumnus.
Montgomery County Deputy D.A. Kristen Feden highlighted Constand’s phone record pattern of calling her own cell number, which indicated checking her voicemail, then placing a call to Cosby, then a member on Temple University’s Board of Trustees.
“I pretty much remember most of the time leaving messages,” Constand said. “I can’t remember a time when I got him on the phone, but it might have been possible.”
On Tuesday, Constand, 44, said that on the date of the assault, she went to Cosby’s home to discuss her career. She said the comedian, who was serving as her mentor, gave her three pills and told her they would help her relax.
She told the court that, after taking the pills, her legs became “rubbery,” adding: “I don’t really remember passing out.”
Later, Constand testified, Cosby groped her breast, and placed her hand on his penis. Constand told the court that she wanted to stop Cosby, but was “frozen.”
Constand also testified that the comedian had touched her inappropriately prior to that night, telling the court that he “commented on my pants and touched the side of my waist and took his hand and attempted to unbutton my button… When I felt that, I leaned forward and he took his hand away…’I said I’m not here for that, I don’t want that.’”
Asked why she visited Cosby again after that initial incident, Constand replied, “I wasn’t scared of someone making a pass at me or an advance at me.”
Cosby’s team also tried to show that Cosby and Costand had a consensual relationship, pointing to phone records indicating she called him on Valentine’s Day of 2004.
Tim Kenneally contributed to this report.