A decade ago, Bill Cosby admitted under oath that he gave women drugs for the purpose of sex.
In a deposition on September 29, 2005, the comedian was asked, “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?”
“Yes,” responded Cosby.
The document obtained by The Hollywood Reporter was revealed after a Pennsylvania judge agreed to unseal old court filings in a settled case brought by Andrea Constand, who was the first woman to publicly come forward with allegations that he drugged and sexually assaulted her. The settlement happened in the midst of discovery as Cosby confronted charges that there were other women who were victims.
Once the case was settled, the court papers remained private until today. In December, the Associated Press filed a motion to intervene and cited a local rule presuming the unsealing after two years.
Cosby fought to keep the documents private, arguing he wasn’t a public figure, there’s “no legitimate public interest” in an old sex abuse lawsuit, and confidentiality should be maintained on materials described as posing a “real, specific threat of serious embarrassment.”
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Eduardo Robreno agreed to open up court records.
Cosby “has donned the mantle of public moralist and mounted the proverbial electronic or print soap box to volunteer his views on, among other things, childrearing, family life, education, and crime,” states Robreno’s opinion. “To the extent that Defendant has freely entered the public square and ‘thrust himself into the vortex of th[ese] public issue[s],’ he has voluntarily narrowed the zone of privacy that he is entitled to claim.”
The court documents shed more light on some of the accusations against Cosby.
For example, according to one of the newly revealed court papers, Cosby testified that he called Tom Illus of the William Morris Agency and asked him to send money to one female accuser. Cosby is said to have testified that Illus did not ask him why. Cosby also said he wasn’t sure whether he asked Illus to send money to women.
More to come.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
