Comedian/actor Bill Cosby performs at the Treasure Island Hotel & Casino on September 26, 2014 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Bill Cosby (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
Newly unsealed testimony appears to corroborate claims made by several women who say Bill Cosby drugged and raped them during the comedian’s long career. In 2005, Cosby admitted to obtaining quaaludes — which are no longer distributed — with the intent of giving them to women he wanted to have sex with. He further admitted to giving the drug to several women in testimony for a sexual-abuse case filed by former Temple University employee Andrea Constand.
In documents obtained by The Associated Press, who sought the contents of the deposition in court, Cosby said he obtained seven quaalude prescriptions in the 1970s during questioning by Constand’s lawyer, who also asked if he had kept the powerful sedatives through the 1990s, after they were banned.
“When you got the quaaludes, was it in your mind that you were going to use these quaaludes for young women that you wanted to have sex with?” Troiani asked.
“Yes,” Cosby answered.
“Did you ever give any of these young women the quaaludes without their knowledge?” Troiani asked.
Cosby’s lawyer repeatedly objected, prompting Troiani to request a federal judge force Cosby to answer. The comedian’s lawyers argued that two of the accusers knew they were taking quaaludes from the comedian, according to the unsealed documents.
“This confirms the allegations of numerous victims who have said that he has used drugs in order to sexually assault them,” celebrity attorney Gloria Allred told FOX411. “This admission is one that Mr. Cosby has attempted to hide from the public for many years and we are very gratified that it is now being made public.”
Allred said she will move to have the evidence admitted in court on behalf of her clients.
Cosby, 77, has been accused by more than two dozen women of sexual misconduct in episodes dating back more than four decades. Cosby has never been charged with a crime, and the statute of limitations on most of the accusations has expired.
On November 19, NBC became the second outlet following Netflix to cancel projects with Bill Cosby, which came only one day after famous model and well-known TV host Janice Dickinson told “Entertainment Tonight” that she was sexually assaulted by the comic in 1982.
A poll taken in the wake of the cancelations and rash of new allegations found that — even though nearly half of Americans said they think it’s likely the rape allegations against comedian Bill Cosby were true — networks shouldn’t have cancelled his shows until he was found guilty of an actual crime.
Meanwhile, Cosby’s lawyers objected to the release of the documents, arguing it would embarrass him. “It would be terribly embarrassing for this material to come out,” George M. Gowen III, a Cosby lawyer argued back in June.
But the judge wasn’t buying it and, ultimately, agreed with Gayle Sproul, the layer representing the AP, who in court last month called Cosby “an icon” who “held himself out as someone who would guide the public in ways of morality.” Still, the judge unsealed just a small portion of the deposition.
“The stark contrast between Bill Cosby, the public moralist and Bill Cosby, the subject of serious allegations concerning improper (and perhaps criminal) conduct is a matter as to which the AP — and by extension the public — has a significant interest,” U.S. District Judge Eduardo Robreno wrote. Cosby, with his outspoken views on childrearing, family life, education and crime “has voluntarily narrowed the zone of privacy that he is entitled to claim,” Judge Robreno wrote.
“Why would he be embarrassed by his own version of the facts?” the judge said.
Judge Robreno, however, did not respond to the argument that the material would “prejudice him in eyes of the jury pool in Massachusetts,” where Cosby is fighting defamation lawsuits brought by women who say his representatives smeared them by accusing them of lying.
Cosby settled Constand’s lawsuit under confidential terms in 2006.
“This evidence shows a pattern in which defendant ‘mentored’ naive young women and introduced drugs into the relationship, with and without the woman’s knowledge, in order for him to achieve sexual satisfaction,” Constand’s lawyer, Dolores M. Troiani, argued in court papers.
Cosby resigned in December from the board of trustees at Temple University, where he was the popular face of the Philadelphia school in advertisements, fundraising campaigns and commencement speeches.
Cosby “has evidenced a predilection for sexual contact with women who are unconscious or drugged. His victims are young, ‘star struck’ and totally trusting of his public persona,” Troiani argued.
