The second day of Bill Cosby’s retrial on indecent assault charges began with sharp criticism of Cosby accuser Andrea Constand’s character, with Cosby defense attorney Tom Mesereau painting the former Temple University employee as a “con artist.”
On Tuesday, during the defense’s opening statements, Mesereau told the jury that, while Constand wasn’t attracted to Cosby, she was in love with his fame and money.
Meserau also discussed the 2006 settlement that Cosby and Constand reached over the civil case that she brought against Cosby, a settlement identified as $3.38 million by the prosecution during opening statements Monday, saying that the settlement does not constitute an admission of wrongdoing.
On numerous occasions Tuesday morning, Mesereau painted Constand as money-hungry, at one point saying that Constand had a history of financial problems, until she hit the jackpot with Cosby.
Telling the jury that Constand had changed her story multiple times, Mesereau urged jurors to compare a statement Constand gave to police in Canada to other accounts of her experience with Cosby.
“A con artist. We’ll prove it,” Mesereau said.
During Tuesday’s opening statements, Mesereau also made a veiled reference to the recent waves of sexual misconduct accusations making headlines in the media, suggesting that Constand perhaps hoped that, in the current climate, the jury would be biased and wouldn’t see the truth.
Constand has accused Cosby of molesting her in 2004 at his home outside of Philadelphia. Cosby’s initial trial in the matter ended in a mistrial in July 2017 after the jury was unable to reach a verdict following five days of deliberations.