In January 2004, Constand went to Cosby's house in
Elkins Park,
Pennsylvania, after a night out with friends. Constand stated that Cosby listened to her complaints about stress. During the investigation, police interviewed Cosby and Constand, calling them, "very cooperative." They also went to Cosby's home in Pennsylvania, only to find little or no evidence of a sexual interaction from a year prior. On February 22, 2005, Montgomery County District Attorney
Bruce Castor issued a
press release stating that he "finds insufficient, credible and admissible evidence exists upon which any charge against Mr. Cosby could be sustained beyond a reasonable doubt." The case was dropped at that time when the prosecutor decided not to proceed. The original complaint contained a great deal of additional information that became available to the press.
Civil case and new accusations Constand filed a
civil claim in March 2005, alleging both the rape, and post-rape
libel by Cosby's denial of wrongdoing, with 13 women as potential witnesses if the case went to court. Cosby settled out of court for an undisclosed amount in November 2006. After learning that charges were not pursued in the case, California lawyer Tamara Lucier Green, the only publicly named woman in the prior case, came forward with allegations in February 2005 that Cosby had drugged and assaulted her in the 1970s. Cosby's lawyer said Cosby did not know her and the events did not happen.
Unsealing of Cosby deposition On July 8, 2015, Andrea Constand and her attorney Dolores Troiani filed a motion to negate the confidentiality agreement in the 2005 case against Cosby, claiming that Cosby had already engaged in "total abandonment of the confidentiality portions of the agreement" by way of the recent, sweeping denials of all allegations against him. The motion was filed in part with the hopes of being able to release the full transcript of Cosby's previously sealed deposition. Cosby's attorneys responded that Constand had already violated the confidentiality agreement by giving an interview to the
Toronto Sun, which was published the same day as Constand's filing. The entire deposition from 2005 was released 10 days later, causing Cosby's lawyers to file a new motion in the case on July 21, 2015, asserting that Constand and Troiani may have orchestrated the release of the deposition. In the deposition, Cosby testified that he had obtained
Quaaludes from a gynecologist by the name of Leroy Amar, who knew that Cosby had no intention of taking the drugs himself. Cosby's testimony in the civil case showed a history of
casual sex involving use of Quaaludes with a series of young women. Cosby admitted to knowing that, at the time, it was illegal to dispense the drug to other people. Amar would later have his medical license revoked in the states of both
California and
New York. The judge ruled that releasing the sealed document was justified by Cosby's role as a "public
moralist" in contrast to his possible criminal private behavior. On July 18, 2015,
The New York Times, having obtained the complete deposition from a court reporting service (hired by Constand) which had released the document to the public domain, published a summary and excerpts. In a court filing condemning the release of the deposition, Cosby's attorneys stressed that none of the testimony so far unsealed by a judge stated that he engaged in non-consensual sex or gave anyone Quaaludes without their knowledge or consent: "Reading the media accounts, one would conclude that the Defendant has admitted to rape," the document said. "And yet the Defendant admitted to nothing more than being one of the many people who introduced Quaaludes into their consensual sex life in the 1970s". Cosby's lawyers further contended that a court reporting service hired by Constand had released the 2005 court transcript to the
New York Times, days earlier, in a 'massive breach of protocol'. The court reporters' code of ethics prohibits the release of testimony without all parties first being contacted. Troiani filed a response in which she denied that she or Constand had anything to do with the unsealing of Cosby's deposition, and continued to emphasize that it was Cosby, not Constand, who first violated the confidentiality agreement. She also referred to Cosby as a "narcissist" for assuming Constand's tweets were about him. Troiani sought reimbursement of legal fees from Cosby. may be allowed by judges to use the contents of the transcript as evidence now that it is in the public domain. The case was held in
abeyance, pending further action in the ongoing defamation case from Tamara Green, et al., since that lawsuit was also seeking access On September 22, 2015, lawyer Edwin Jacobs said that Cosby's agents had contacted him in the past few days about a pending criminal investigation in Montgomery County. Jacobs, who had represented Cosby in a review of Lili Bernard's complaint in New Jersey, said he referred Cosby's agents to another high-profile Philadelphia-area lawyer who declined to comment. Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman again still remained silent when asked if an investigation had been re-opened in the Andrea Constand Case. Constand's lawyer said she would cooperate in the new investigation if asked. "She's a very strong lady," lawyer Dolores Troiani said Tuesday. "She'll do whatever they request of her." On October 27, 2015, it was confirmed, from reliable sources, that an open criminal sexual assault investigation into the Constand case had been re-opened shortly after Cosby's deposition was released to the press during the summer. And that investigators had re-interviewed Constand as well as other alleged victims and witnesses. Constand has stated that she would stop cooperating if the original Prosecutor Bruce Castor, whom she is suing for defamation, is re-elected and assigned to the case. "The logical consequence of his actions is she has lost confidence in him," Troiani says. "He just doesn't seem to understand words have consequences. He's saying a victim of a crime should be afraid of him and now he wants her to trust him to be a witness for him?"
2015 District Attorney race and defamation lawsuit Bruce Castor, the District Attorney in charge of investigating Constand's original claim, decided to run for the position again after leaving office in 2008. Running against him was Democrat Kevin Steele, the incumbent Assistant District Attorney. Steele used the controversy in a campaign ad that criticized Castor for "not even trying" to perform a thorough investigation against Cosby. The local
off-year election in a community of 800,000 residents gained international attention. Steele won the election with 89,718 votes to Castor's 72,574. The new focus on Cosby's alleged sexual assaults forced Castor to respond to questions about his decision not to charge Cosby in 2004. He defended his actions by suggesting that Constand's story had been inconsistent, making her an unreliable witness. Because of this, Constand sued Castor for one count of defamation; and one count of false light and invasion of privacy, asking for more than $150,000 for each offense. "Instead of correcting his error, [Castor] chose to make
plaintiff collateral damage for his political ambitions," Constand said in her complaint. Castor responded, "It's highly suspect that this entire incident is being brought out right before an election." Constand's attorney went on saying Castor was treating her as "political collateral" and suggesting that if Castor were elected, Constand would not cooperate in the re-opened criminal investigation against Cosby.
2015 criminal charge Recently elected District Attorney Steele announced in late 2015, days before he officially took office (still acting as Assistant District Attorney), that a felony charge would be laid against Cosby on December 30 as a result of the accusations made by Andrea Constand. There was some urgency since the criminal statute of limitations in the case would expire after 12 years, at the beginning of January 2016. Based on the very detailed arrest warrant filed on December 15, 2015, the alleged sexual assault on Constand is presumed to have occurred at Cosby's home in Cheltenham Township, PA, on an unspecified date between mid-January and mid-February 2004. (The news media coverage refers to the date of the incident as "January 2004"). The accusation against Cosby was first made to the
Durham Regional Police Service near Constand's home in
Pickering, Ontario, on January 13, 2005; the report was subsequently forwarded to the authorities in Pennsylvania. The warrant alleges that blue pills, said to be Benadryl by Cosby, during the January 2004 incident. Testimony from the Constand's civil suit had been reviewed by that time and the file was said to contain new information. Cosby had testified that the sexual contact was consensual. However, according to an article in
People, Constand's lawyer, Dolores Troiani, referred to Cosby "as a narcissist who didn't realize Constand (who was in a relationship with a woman at the time of the alleged assault) is gay" in a 2015 filing during a defamation lawsuit by Cosby vs. Constand. The preliminary hearing was scheduled for January 14, 2016.
2017 mistrial declaration On June 17, 2017, a US judge declared a mistrial in the Bill Cosby sex assault case after the jury remained deadlocked for days. The seven men and five women were unable to reach a unanimous decision after some 53 hours of deliberations in Norristown, Pennsylvania. District Attorney Kevin Steele, the district attorney who brought the charges, told reporters that the prosecution was seeking a retrial. "We will evaluate and review our case. We will take a hard look at everything involved and then we will retry it. As I said in court, our plan is to move this case forward as soon as possible." Cosby, who faced at least four separate civil lawsuits, refused to testify at the trial.
2018 guilty verdict On April 26, 2018, Cosby was found guilty of all three counts against Constand. Castor said he did so to compel Cosby to testify in a civil lawsuit, brought by Constand, without the right to not incriminate himself as accorded by the
Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Cosby testified that he had given Constand
Benadryl, and that he had separately provided
Quaaludes to women he wanted to have sex with. Cosby settled the civil lawsuit by paying $3.38 million. resulting in him being convicted of assaulting Constand, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court concluded that Cosby's due process rights were violated. The court further barred prosecution of Cosby "on these particular charges". ==References==