Bill Cosby Sexual Assault Trial: Judge Rules That Star’s Comments About Giving Women Quaaludes Are Admissible


Montgomery County court Judge Steven T. O’Neill gave the Bill Cosby defense team a bit of good news and a bit of bad news today regarding the comedian’s fast-approaching sexual assault trial. In his Friday ruling, the judge determined that some of 79-year-old Cosby’s past comments will come back to haunt him, while many of his decades-old jokes will be inadmissible in court. It was also revealed by Cosby and his team that the comic is now completely blind.

Bill Cosby is facing three counts of aggravated indecent assault, all felonies, related to an alleged sexual incident with accuser Andrea Constand in 2004. On Friday, his legal team learned that comments he made during a deposition 10 years ago regarding giving Quaaludes — a now-banned drug with sedative and hypnotic qualities often used as a party drug, which was allegedly used by Cosby to render his victim unconscious and incapable of fighting off his sexual advances — to women will be admissible during his upcoming criminal trial, reports ABC News. The deposition in question occurred in 2005, and was related to a sexual battery and defamation lawsuit brought against Cosby by Constand, his alleged victim.

Bill Cosby would go on to settle that civil lawsuit out of court in 2006.

Fortunately for the star of The Cosby Show, while his talk of giving Quaaludes to women will be allowed during his upcoming criminal trial, the judge’s Friday ruling made it clear that all other details related to the civil suit and related settlement will not be admissible, USA Today reports.

Also inadmissible at the Bill Cosby sexual assault trial will be questionable jokes and comments referencing the aphrodisiac, Spanish fly. Cosby referenced the substance in his book Childhood, as well as in an interview with the legendary Larry King shortly after his book was released. While the comments were definitely offensive, and some would say pertinent given the number of women who have come forward to accuse Bill Cosby of drugging and sexually assaulting them, Judge O’Neill ruled that there will be no talk of the Cosby comments at trial.

In his book, Cosby lamented that girls were “never in the mood” during his youth.

“They need chemicals.”

According to prosecutors in the sexual assault trial, Cosby’s Spanish fly comments are directly related to the current charges facing the disgraced celebrity, which is why they wanted them admitted during his pending trial.

“You have an individual who freely admits to administering a toxin to engage in a sex act with a female. It was his intent to obtain Quaaludes to deliver them to women to have sex with them.”

According to Andrea Constand, Bill Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted her at his Philadelphia home in 2004. Cosby has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him, and while the married superstar doesn’t deny that he had a sexual encounter with the former Temple University employee, he claims that everything that occurred was consensual.

Despite his not guilty plea to the criminal sexual assault charges that have been levied against him, Bill Cosby has faced Constand’s accusations before, in relation to the infamous 2005 civil case and the deposition that is now coming back to haunt his criminal trial. In that instance, Cosby opted not to allow the case to go to trial, and rather settled with his accuser for an undisclosed amount. That civil case was subsequently sealed, but since the criminal charges against Cosby have come to light, news organizations have successfully petitioned for parts of the civil depositions to be made a matter of public record.

Since October, 2014, dozens and dozens of alleged victims have come forward to point the finger at Bill Cosby. All of Cosby’s alleged victims claim that the comedian drugged them, sexually assaulted them or both, and some of the accusations go back to the 1960s.

Despite the shocking number of women who have accused Bill Cosby of sex crimes, only Andrea Constand’s allegations have resulted in a criminal trial.

Bill Cosby was initially charged in December of 2015, and his criminal trial is slated for June 5. In February, the judge in the case ruled that jurors in the trial will be brought in from another county. What’s more, while the prosecution in the case had lined up 13 accusers (in addition to Constand) who were willing to testify at the sexual assault criminal trial, the judge has ruled that only one other accuser will take the stand against Bill Cosby in June.

[Featured Image by Matt Rourke/AP Images]

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