“It’s fixed, I have no chance.”
Bill Cosby “seeks plea deal to avoid prison time in criminal sex assault trial of Temple University student” Andrea Constand. Cosby, 79, is set to have a criminal trail in June on three counts of felony aggravated indecent assault. It’s a trial the legendary comedian is not looking forward to since a Pennsylvania judge ruled last week that testimony Cosby gave during a 2006 deposition for an accuser’s lawsuit may be used in his criminal trial, during which he admits he had a string of extramarital and “consensual” relationships with young women, but many of the women say they were drugged and molested.
A source tells the New York Post, “He and his family, including his wife, Camille, are adamant that Bill won’t be able to convince a jury to let him off.
“Cosby and his family believe he’ll be eligible for a sentence of just probation — and remove the threat of him dying in prison. They are hoping that the district attorney will feel as though he’s won with a plea deal and they’re thinking that the DA will consider Cosby’s age, his medical condition, the fact that he’s paid the victim on the case millions, and the fact that his career is over.”
Cosby’s defense team had insisted that he only testified in the old case after being promised he wouldn’t be charged over his 2004 encounter with accuser Andrea Constand, a former Temple University student.
Cosby stands accused of drugging and raping more than 50 women.
“This court concludes that there was neither an agreement nor a promise not to prosecute, only an exercise of prosecutorial discretion,” Montgomery County Judge Steven O’Neill wrote in his ruling.
After the ruling, Cosby said “It’s fixed — I have no chance,” the Post reported.
The Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office declined to comment on the plea deal.
Excerpts from Bill Cosby deposition in civil suit 2005-06:
The following exchanges between Cosby and Constand’s lawyer Dolores Troiani took place in 2005 and 2006.
[On Andrea Constand]
Q. When did you first develop a romantic interest in Andrea?
A. Probably the first time I saw her (at Temple’s arena).
[On the night in question]
Q: Can you tell me … what you recall of the night in which you gave the pills to Andrea?
A: Andrea came to the house. I called her. … We talked about Temple University. We talked about her position. And then I went upstairs and I got three pills. I brought them down. They are the equivalent of one and a half. The reason why I gave them and offered them to Andrea, which she took after examining them, was because she was talking about stress.
[Cosby describes a several-minute sexual encounter that followed.]
Q: So, you’re not telling us that you verbally asked her for permission?
A: I didn’t say it verbally, I said. The action is my hand on her midriff, which is skin. I’m not lifting any clothing up. This is, I don’t remember fully what it is, but it’s there and I can feel. I got her skin and it’s just above the hand and it’s just above where you can go under the pants.
Q: Then what happens?
A: I don’t hear her say anything. And I don’t feel her say anything. And so I continue and I go into the area that is somewhere between permission and rejection. I am not stopped.
[Cosby testified that he had gotten quaaludes from his doctor in Los Angeles in the 1970s. He said he was given seven prescriptions for the now-banned sedative, ostensibly for a sore back.]
Q: Why didn’t you ever take the quaaludes?
A: Because I used them.
Q: For what?
A: The same as a person would say, ‘Have a drink.’
Q: You gave them to other people?
A: Yes.
Q: Did you believe at that time that it was illegal for you to dispense those drugs?
A: Yes.
