Bill Cosby admits to sexual relations with teens and paying off alleged victims

The disgraced actor returns to court on Tuesday.

Bill Cosby walks into court. (Pool New/Reuters)

The eve before Bill Cosby returned to a Pennsylvania courthouse for a preliminary hearing in his sexual assault case, The Associated Press dropped a bomb, revealing that in 2005 the disgraced comedian admitted to having sexual relations with teens and paying off alleged victims.

Cosby, 78, has been criminally charged with drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand, a former employee at his alma mater Temple University. He was arrested ten years after the assault complaint when a deposition in the lawsuit became public.

In the sworn deposition, Constand’s lawyer Dolores Troiani grills Cosby, accusing him of drugging women before sex, paying hush money to victims and hosting 17-year-olds at his home.

Troiani: She says that just days after ... she told you that she did not drink, you told her to come over to [your townhouse] and served her amaretto. Do you recall serving her amaretto?

Cosby: No.

That you told her to sit next to you on the couch and that you put your arm around her and began massaging her shoulder and arms suggestively. Did that occur? ... This occurred sometime after you met her parents.

I need clarification on time.

She’s 17 and I believe throughout the time she knows you she becomes 18 or 19. On a later occasion you had her masturbate you with lotion. Did that ever happen?

Yes.

Despite the admission, Cosby’s lawyers have maintained his innocence throughout the years. He’s been accused of drugging and raping more than 50 women dating back to the 1960s.

He’s also been accused of sexual assault in 1976, involving 19-year-old Therese Serignese, who said Cosby drugged her with quaaludes during a consensual sexual encounter. In the deposition, Cosby admitted to paying off women through his William Morris agency to prevent his wife, Camille Cosby, from finding out.

Troiani: So, was the purpose of that to disguise…
Cosby: Yes.

I have to finish my question. Was it to disguise that you were paying money to Therese?
Yes.

Who were you preventing from knowing that?
Mrs. Cosby.

On Tuesday, Constant chose not to take the witness stand in the hearing. Montgomery County Pennsylvania Judge Elizabeth McHugh told the district attorney it’s a “risky move” not to place the victim on the stand, but allowed the decision based on recent Superior Court ruling, The Philadelphia Inquirer reports.

The detective took the stand and read Constand’s statement to police, saying she felt dizzy and delusional after Cosby gave her pills and alcohol: "I was lying on my left side with my knees bent. That was the last thing I remember."

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