Update: Bill Cosby's lawyers spoke on the comedian's behalf for the first time since parts of a 2005 deposition were leaked this weekend. Cosby's team says that, in the deposition, Cosby "admitted to nothing more than being one of the many people who introduced Quaaludes into their consensual sex life in the 1970s," according to a filing obtained by The New York Times.
Many news outlets have reported on the deposition (including this one) as the most damning proof yet of claims that Cosby has used drugs to rape women. His lawyers say those reports are misconstruing his testimony from a civil case against him by Andrea Constand that was settled in 2006. Cosby's representatives go on to say that Constand is engaged in a smear campaign against Cosby.
This article was originally published on July 19, 2015.
Here is one long read we are happy to have someone else summarize for us: The New York Times attained the publicly available deposition of Bill Cosby from the 2006 case in which he admitted to giving women quaaludes. As you might expect if you've been paying attention to the claims from alleged victims of the comedian, it is an account of a man with some twisted views of what counts as consensual sex. The case, brought by Andrea Constand, alleged that after a mentoring relationship that lasted for years when she was a basketball manager at Temple University, he drugged and molested her at his Pennsylvania home. In his deposition, he says he had given her nothing more than a tab and a half of Benadryl. Later, when Constand went home to Canada, Cosby spoke to her and her mother on the phone, and he states that he remembers thinking, "Tell your mother about the orgasm. Tell your mother how we talked." Because having an orgasm means it wasn't rape? Over the course of the four-day deposition, Cosby revealed that he'd obtained prescriptions for Quaaludes specifically to give to women. " What was happening at that time was that that was -- Quaaludes happen to be the drug that kids, young people were using to party with and there were times when I wanted to have them just in case," he said, and when asked why he didn't take them himself, he replied, "Because I used them ... The same as a person would say have a drink." He also said he was really good at reading nonverbal clues when it came to consent. Some other interesting tidbits revealed in the document: Cosby would funnel money to women he had relationships with through his agent, so wife Camille wouldn't find out; he didn't always have full intercourse with a woman because he felt "the woman will succumb to more of a romance and more of a feeling"; and also, he owned at least 100 pairs of sweatpants. Constand's lawyer had 13 other women ready to testify for the case, but it was settled out of court in 2006, so this is our best public record of Cosby's behavior. If you have a very strong gag reflex, read some more excerpts here.
Here is one long read we are happy to have someone else summarize for us: The New York Times attained the publicly available deposition of Bill Cosby from the 2006 case in which he admitted to giving women quaaludes. As you might expect if you've been paying attention to the claims from alleged victims of the comedian, it is an account of a man with some twisted views of what counts as consensual sex. The case, brought by Andrea Constand, alleged that after a mentoring relationship that lasted for years when she was a basketball manager at Temple University, he drugged and molested her at his Pennsylvania home. In his deposition, he says he had given her nothing more than a tab and a half of Benadryl. Later, when Constand went home to Canada, Cosby spoke to her and her mother on the phone, and he states that he remembers thinking, "Tell your mother about the orgasm. Tell your mother how we talked." Because having an orgasm means it wasn't rape? Over the course of the four-day deposition, Cosby revealed that he'd obtained prescriptions for Quaaludes specifically to give to women. " What was happening at that time was that that was -- Quaaludes happen to be the drug that kids, young people were using to party with and there were times when I wanted to have them just in case," he said, and when asked why he didn't take them himself, he replied, "Because I used them ... The same as a person would say have a drink." He also said he was really good at reading nonverbal clues when it came to consent. Some other interesting tidbits revealed in the document: Cosby would funnel money to women he had relationships with through his agent, so wife Camille wouldn't find out; he didn't always have full intercourse with a woman because he felt "the woman will succumb to more of a romance and more of a feeling"; and also, he owned at least 100 pairs of sweatpants. Constand's lawyer had 13 other women ready to testify for the case, but it was settled out of court in 2006, so this is our best public record of Cosby's behavior. If you have a very strong gag reflex, read some more excerpts here.