Jury hears Cosby's graphic testimony

NORRISTOWN, Pa. -- Jurors on Tuesday got a sense of Bill Cosby's view of consent from graphic deposition testimony in which the comedian described reaching an area "somewhere between permission and rejection" during what he claims was a prior sexual encounter with his chief accuser.

Cosby, 80, testified a dozen years ago as part of a lawsuit Andrea Constand filed against him, and prosecutors won the right to introduce it at his sexual assault retrial on charges he drugged and molested her at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004.

In the deposition, Cosby described his attempt to obtain consent from Constand during a previous encounter.

"I'm giving Andrea time to say 'yes' or 'no' about an area that is right there in the question zone," Cosby testified.

He said he rubbed the skin above her trousers and "without talking I'm asking can I go farther."

"I don't hear her say anything. And I don't feel her say anything," Cosby said. "And so I continue, and I go into the area that is somewhere between permission and rejection. I am not stopped."

He then described the purported encounter in extremely graphic terms with some jurors looking taken aback, pained or disgusted.

Constand has testified she rejected Cosby's prior advances.

Jurors also were expected to hear Cosby's description of the night Constand says he assaulted her as well as his explosive testimony about how he gave quaaludes to women before sex.

Judge Steven O'Neill ruled Tuesday prosecutors could have the "Cosby Show" star's deposition testimony read into the record, handing the prosecution a key victory in its effort to portray the comedian as a serial predator.

The deposition was also included at Cosby's first trial, which ended with a hung jury last year.

Prosecutors used another of Cosby's statements, this one he gave to police in 2005, to show how he described the encounter for which he is facing aggravated indecent assault charges potentially sending him to prison for years.

Cosby said he gave Constand 1 1/2 tablets of the cold and allergy medicine Benadryl to help her relax, then fondled her breasts and genitals, according to the transcript, which was read to the jury Tuesday morning.

Cosby said Constand never told him to stop.

"We are petting. I enjoyed it," the TV star said, according to the transcript. "And then I stopped, and I went up to bed. We stopped, and then we talked."

Constand says Cosby knocked her out with the pills and then sexually assaulted her, penetrating her with his fingers and guiding her hand to his penis. Cosby told police he didn't remember whether Constand touched his genitals.

Cosby said in his deposition that he had obtained several prescriptions for quaaludes from his doctor in Los Angeles in the 1970s, ostensibly for a sore back. The long-married comedian said he never took the drug, instead giving it to women he wanted to have sex with "the same as a person would say, 'Have a drink.'"

"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," Cosby testified.

The comic ultimately settled Constand's lawsuit for nearly $3.4 million.