Torchde Team | April 24, 2021
Bill Cosby’s appeal for his 2018 conviction for aggravated indecent assault of Andrea Constand is under review by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court justices. The panel expressed many concerns over how prosecutors tried the case, including the use of a civil case 2005 deposition. According to juror Harrison Snyder, it was the Cosby 2005 deposition that sealed Cosby’s conviction. The 22 year old told Good Morning America “I think it was his deposition, really. Mr. Cosby admitted to giving these Quaaludes to women, young women, in order to have sex with them.” There’s no question that these words were used to convict Cosby in the court of law and the court of public opinion. Still, a major portion of the court transcript was omitted from media reports and the prosecution’s case.
The Cosby Deposition vs The Media’s Version
On Feb 19, 2021, the Cosby camp took to Twitter and posted a message along with a quote from Malcolm X with a screenshot of his 2005 deposition transcript. The tweet read: “People, I spoke about a culture in the 1970s during my deposition testimony back in 2005. I never admitted to drugging women for sex.” The transcript from March 28, 2006, read:
Q. 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?
A. Yes.
Q. Did you ever give any of those young women the Quaaludes without their knowledge?
A. No.
The snippet Cosby posted on Twitter can be found on the Montgomery County website. The November 21, 2005 portion used in media, submitted by Dolores Troiani, Constand’s attorney quotes:
Q. Did you ever give any of those young women the Quaaludes without their knowledge?
Mr. O’connor: Object to the question. Restrict it to the Jane Does, would you, please.
Ms. Troiani: No, I will not.
Mr. O’connor: Do not answer it.
Cosby’s Legal Team, Countless Tales of Celebrities Using Quaaludes
Cosby’s legal team wrote that media reports inaccurately labeled Cosby’s testimony about the drug as a ‘confession of drugging and assaulting women.’ “There are countless tales of celebrities, music stars, and wealthy socialites in the 1970s willingly using Quaaludes for recreational purposes and during consensual sex.”
This does not mean that Quaaludes couldn’t have been used to rape a person. Nevertheless, someone claiming to have given someone else medication, per their request, during a consensual sexual encounter is not the same as drugging someone for sex. Monique Pressley, Cosby’s attorney, discussed the deposition statements that the media chose to overlook in her 2015 CNN interview. “What’s important there is the questions that Mr. Cosby did answer,” she continued “Those answers were 1, that he never gave a woman a drug without her consent, and 2, that he never had non-consensual sex with another person.”