NORRISTOWN, Pa. — The judge overseeing Bill Cosby‘s sex assault retrial ruled early Tuesday jurors will be allowed to hear testimony regarding the entertainer’s admitted use of Quaaludes.
Jurors in Cosby’s first trial, which ended with a hung jury last summer, were also allowed to hear the disgraced comedian’s admissions that he’d used the powerful sedative with at least one woman before sex.
Accuser Andrea Constand, who stepped down from the stand Monday following two days of grueling questioning, claims Cosby offered her three round blue pills to help her “relax” in January 2004 before sexually assaulting her.
She testified she thought the pills were herbal but left her mouth feeling cottony, her legs like jello, and rendered her unable to move as she says the embattled comic molested her.
Cosby said he’d offered her three Benadryl. Prosecutors suspect the pills were actually Quaaludes.
The 80-year-old’s new defense team had tried to toss the entertainer’s statements regarding the drugs, given during a 2005 civil deposition after he was sued by Constand.
“There’s just no relevance to this testimony,” defense attorney Becky James argued Tuesday.
In the civil deposition, Cosby acknowledged obtaining seven different prescriptions for Quaaludes during the 1970s, and said he’d used them with a woman named Theresa at the Las Vegas Hilton sometime during that decade.
“Did you ever give the Quaaludes to any other female but Theresa?” Constand attorney Dolores Troiani asked him during the 2005 deposition.
“Yes,” he replied.
“Did you ever give any of those young women Quaaludes without their knowledge?” Troiani asked.
“I misunderstood. Woman, not women. Just her,” he responded.
During that same deposition, Cosby testified he’d been the victim of an extortion plot.
Lawyers Tuesday squabbled over whether or not the name of the alleged blackmailer would be revealed in court. O’Neill said he would reserve a decision until later on in the trial.
Cosby faces three counts of aggravated indecent assault for the alleged incident. He faces up to 10 years behind bars on each count if convicted.