A decade-old deposition given by Bill Cosby reveals that the comedian was confident in his ability to seduce women and admitted to paying “hush money” to at least one woman in exchange for her not going public with sexual abuse allegations.
The September 29, 2005 deposition–obtained in full by the New York Times–paints a picture of Cosby as a jocular, boastful womanizer who used his fame as leverage to seduce and sleep with women.
At one point in the deposition, Cosby said he was skilled at picking up nonverbal cues about whether women wanted to have sex or not: “I think I’m a pretty decent reader of people and their emotions in these romantic sexual things, whatever you want to call them.”
The findings from the full deposition come after excerpts from a memorandum were released by the Associated Press earlier this month. In those excerpts, Cosby admitted to obtaining quaaludes to give to women with whom he intended to have sex.
Cosby has faced dozens of accusations from women who say they were sexually abused by the comedian over the last several decades. He has not been charged with a crime.
Cosby’s testimony described sexual and romantic encounters with several women, but focused most notably on the case of one Andrea Constand, a young basketball manager at Temple University whom Cosby began seeing in the early 2000s.
Cosby testified that he invited Constand over for a fire-lit dinner and Cognac one night: “I take her hair and I pull it back and I have her face like this,” he said. “And I’m talking to her… And I talked to her about relaxing, being strong. And I said to her, come in, meaning her body.”
Cosby said the two did not kiss that night because he could tell that she did not want to. But at the next dinner, Cosby said the two had a “sexual moment,” but did not have intercourse. The two reportedly retained some form of a relationship over the next few years.
Years later, Constand accused Cosby of drugging her at his Pennsylvania home. Cosby testified that he gave her one and a half tablets of Benadryl for stress relief before the two had a sexual encounter, but Constand’s lawyer claimed he gave her a stronger drug. When the young woman moved back to Canada a short time later, Cosby reportedly became concerned that she would tell her mother what had transpired between them, and instructed her to tell her mother that all sexual contact had been consensual.
“Tell your mother about the orgasm. Tell your mother how we talked,” Cosby said he recalls thinking at the time.
On the first day of questioning, Constand’s lawyer Dolores Troiani told Cosby that she was concerned he was not taking the proceedings seriously.
“I think you’re making light of a very serious situation,” the plaintiff’s lawyer said.
“That may very well be,” Cosby replied.
Cosby also reportedly described sexual encounters with at least five different women in his deposition, in at least four states.
The deposition was filed away after Cosby settled a suit with Constand out of court six months after providing the testimony.
Check out the rest of Cosby’s 2005 deposition at the NYT here.
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