NORRISTOWN, Pa. — Prosecutors in Bill Cosby’s sex assault trial closed their case Friday, ending five days of evidence and testimony by letting jurors hear the 79-year-old entertainer’s admission that he used to get Quaaludes, a powerful sedative, to use in sexual encounters with women.

In a 2005 deposition, Cosby admitted to obtaining seven prescriptions for the disco-era party drug from a Hollywood gynecologist in the ’70s.

But he insisted that he had never given anyone pills without their knowledge and consent.

“Quaaludes happen to be the drug that … young people were using to party with, and I wanted to have them just in case,” Cosby said, according to the testimony read into the record.

The excerpts were part of a prosecution bid to leave a lasting impression on the jury of seven men and five women in a case that has centered around questions of whether the celebrity administered a powerful sedative to his accuser, Andrea Constand.

They capped a five-day presentation in Norristown highlighted by Constand’s testimony on the witness stand and several potentially damaging admissions from Cosby himself, picked from the deposition he gave for a lawsuit she filed against him in 2005.

Advertisement

As Cosby walked from the courtroom, a woman yelled: “Bill Cosby, I love you!”

Cosby raised his walking stick in acknowledgment.

Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin R. Steele has cited a 2015 ruling by a federal judge in Philadelphia to unseal excerpts of that testimony as an impetus for his office’s decision to reopen the Constand investigation after a decade.

Charged with three counts of aggravated indecent assault, the comedian could face more than a decade in prison if convicted.

Copy the Story Link

Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.