The AP and New York Times have both run stories in recent weeks about Bill Cosby’s deposition in a lawsuit filed against him in 2005 by Andrea Constand. While the comedian does not admit to any criminal acts in his testimony, he describes extramarital affairs with young women to whom he gave career advice, provided sedatives, and later paid off—details that aside from the issue of consent match up with the accounts of his behavior given by his many accusers. Cosby comes off, in other words, like a creep—an impression deepened by the Washington Post’s new story about the deposition, which includes previously unpublished excerpts from Cosby’s descriptions of his beliefs and sexual habits.
To wit:
“The act of the penile entrance is something that I feel the woman will succumb to more of a romance and more of a feeling, not love, but it’s deeper than a playful situation.”
And:
Cosby conjures his own vernacular to describe his sexual encounters, and when recalling a night with Constand, he calls himself “one of the greatest storytellers in the world.” At one point, he seems to map a woman’s body, as if he were a sexual cartographer, speaking of the “question zone” (her stomach, just above the top of her pants) and a place “somewhere between permission and rejection” (between her legs).
Perhaps worst of all:
Later, Cosby has a lengthy phone conversation with [Constand’s] mother.
“I’m apologizing because I’m thinking this is a dirty old man with a young girl,” he says during the deposition. “I apologized. I said to the mother it was digital penetration.”
He also gets dissed by Constand’s attorney for making what is apparently a lame joke to make at a deposition:
During the opening moments of his first day of questioning, Constand’s attorney tries to instruct him to answer orally — not with gestures.
Troiani: Will you try to remember that, please.
Cosby: (Witness gestures.)
Troiani: Everyone does the exact same thing.
“This is not a new joke?” Cosby responds.
“No, it’s not a new joke,” Troiani shoots back. “In fact, most times it’s not a joke at all.”
Withering! Cosby later settled Constand’s suit; terms were not disclosed. He currently faces two defamation lawsuits, another civil suit, and a Los Angeles police investigation that are all related to alleged sexual assaults. (The identities of the alleged victim or victims in the Los Angeles case have not been made public.)
