Andrea Constand, the original of Bill Cosby's many alleged victims, has come out publicly as a lesbian to challenge the comedian's description of himself as adept at reading women's sexual desires.
In a flurry of court motions on each side, Constand's attorney has revealed that she is a lesbian and obviously did not provide consent for any sexual activity.
Constand first filed suit against Cosby in 2005 claiming he drugged and raped her at his Pennsylvania home. The case was settled in 2006 for an undisclosed amount, and both parties agreed to be bound by a confidentiality agreement that prevented them from talking about the case.
Cosby's court deposition from a decade ago, publicly available through a court reporting service, was published by The New York Times on July 18, in which he boasted, "I think I'm a pretty decent reader of people and their emotions in these romantic sexual things, whatever you want to call them."
Now lawyers for Constand and Cosby are back in court in Philadelphia, with each claiming the other party broke the agreement. Both parties have spoken to the media about the multiple allegations against Cosby that date back to the 1960s. Cosby has been married since 1964.
Constand "and her counsel, have violated the Settlement Agreement, enabling and fomenting negative -- and largely inaccurate -- publicity," Cosby's attorneys wrote in a July 21 motion. "Throughout this case, Plaintiff made no secret of her desire to publicize it, and she fought mightily, every chance she got, to achieve that publicity."
They cite two specific tweets sent by the accuser on July 6 that read "YES!" and "SIR!"
In a motion filed on Tuesday, Constand's attorneys are firing back with new information. Cosby, they write, "fails to realize that the settlement in this matter was designed to compensate Plaintiff for the injuries Defendant inflicted upon her and to silence BOTH sides. In fact, Defendant has openly engaged in a media blitz."
"In hisnarcissistic view of the world, Defendant believes that Plaintiff's every tweet must be about him," the motion continues. "He is as perceptive in this belief as he claims to be in his interpretation of non-verbal cues from women he wants to seduce. The tweets do not include any hash tags and were sent during the time period that there was extensive publicity about gay marriage." Constand's attorneys say the texts were referring to the Supreme Court ruling on marriage equality on June 26, some two weeks earlier, according to the Philadelpha Inquirer.
"As defendant admits in his deposition, despite his talent for interpreting female reactions to him, he did not realize Plaintiff was gay until the police told him."
Constand, a former employee of Temple University now living in Canada, was in a relationship with a woman during the time period she alleges Cosby sexually assaulted her, according to People magazine. At the time of her court case, 13 women came forward with anonymous sworn statements to support Constand, saying that they, too, had been molested in some way by Cosby. This week, New York Magazinepublished interviews with a total of 35 women who make that same accusation.
More than 40 women have come forward in recent weeks. Cosby has two lawsuits pending: a defamation suit in Massachusetts and a civil sexual-assault case in California.
