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.
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.
Montgomery County detective James Reape had on Thursday read back Cosby's own account of his 2004 sexual encounter with Constand, who told jurors that the entertainer drugged and assaulted her in his Cheltenham mansion.
Friday's excerpts included one in which Cosby said he had grown increasingly concerned that he was being perceived as a "dirty old man" when Constand's mother called him in 2005 to confront him in a conversation she was secretly recording.
"I apologized to this woman," he said in the deposition, and read aloud in court by the detective. "But my apology was, my God, I'm in trouble with these people because this is an old man and their young daughter."
Cosby's testimony also showed he worried that his career could take a financial hit if Constand's allegations became public. He was unaware at the time that Constand had gone to police with her sexual assault allegations just days before the recorded conversation.
Prosecutors have cited the 2015 ruling by a federal judge in Philadelphia to unseal excerpts of that deposition as an impetus in their decision to reopen the Constand investigation after a decade.
Also Friday, jurors heard from Veronique Valliere, a counselor who treats both sex offenders and assault victims, testify that the use of alcohol or drugs can make a victim more confused during an assault, and that the victim may fear backlash in reporting it if the perpetrator is known and well-liked.
"That's a big deal to change somebody's reputation," Valliere said.
After jurors had been dismissed for lunch, defense lawyer Brian McMonagle called for a mistrial, complaining that Valliere's testimony was framed so narrowly to be only about Cosby. The judge denied the request, saying the testimony was permissible.
McMonagle later challenged Valliere on a Facebook post she made in 2016, linking to a news article on Montgomery County Judge Steven T. O'Neill's decision to allow the prosecution of Cosby to proceed.
"Victory, the case lives on," it read, prompting McMonagle to exclaim: "You're biased in this case, aren't you?"
Charged with three counts of aggravated indecent assault, Cosby could face more than a decade in prison if convicted.
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