Bill Cosby: I Got Prescription Drugs And Gave Them To Women For Sex

For all intents and purposes, Bill Cosby’s career may have ended late Monday afternoon. Right around rush hour here on the East Coast, the Associated Press persuaded a judge to release a transcript from a 2005 civil suit, in which Cosby admitted under oath to getting prescription drugs so he could give them to women with whom he wanted to have sex.

Bill Cosby speaking at Frederick Douglass High School in Atlanta (courtesy United States Navy via Wikimedia Commons)
Bill Cosby speaking at Frederick Douglass High School in Atlanta (courtesy United States Navy via Wikimedia Commons)

Back in 2005, Andrea Crosland, a staffer for the women’s basketball team at Temple University–Cosby’s alma mater–sued him, claiming that Cosby had drugged her when she visited Cosby’s home near Philadelphia. Crosland is one of 48 women who have publicly accused Cosby of sexually assaulting them; their accusations date back as far as the 1970s. Crosland said that whatever Cosby gave her made her extremely groggy, and she later woke up to find her bra undone and her clothes strewn about. Cosby settled the suit for an undisclosed sum.

During a sworn deposition, Crosland’s lawyer, Dolores Troiani, asked Cosby about several instances where he got prescription Quaaludes before sexual encounters. When Troiani asked Cosby if it was “in your mind to use these Quaaludes for young women that you wanted to have sex with,” Cosby replied, “Yes.” Troiani tried to press further, asking if Cosby slipped Quaaludes to these women without their knowledge, but Cosby’s lawyer objected.

Cosby never admitted using the prescription Quaaludes, or any other drug, on any of his accusers. But he fought the release of that transcript tooth and nail, saying it would cause embarrassment. If you had nothing to hide, Bill, why did you fight it?

AP legal affairs reporter MaryClaire Dale talked about the release of the deposition on last night’s edition of “The Rachel Maddow Show.” Watch here.


Dale revealed something interesting–as explosive as this revelation is, the AP only has part of the deposition. Makes you wonder–how much more did Cosby reveal?

Dale also said that when Cosby’s lawyers repeated their client’s claim that the release would be embarrassing to him, the judge essentially laughed at them. The rules for federal courts in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania say that documents should be unsealed unless there is a good legal reason not to unseal them, and the judge found that potential embarrassment to Cosby didn’t even begin to meet that standard.

The judge also noted that Cosby had “gone around moralizing on his soapbox” for several years, and it was in the public interest to show how his statements under oath contrasted with that moralizing. While Dale doesn’t think this could reopen any criminal cases against Cosby, she thinks it could give ammunition to the three women who are suing Cosby for calling them liars as part of an ugly smear campaign against Cosby’s accusers.

To a woman, Cosby’s accusers see this as vindication. Barbara Bowman, who says that Cosby assaulted her in the 1980s, said that she had “screamed my story onto deaf ears” for three decades, but now sees the release as “a game changer,” to put it mildly. Another accuser, Patti Masten, says that at least 23 other women have claimed Cosby assaulted them, but haven’t gone public about it. Suffice to say that this may lead some of those women to go public as well.

Am I the only one who finds it hard to see any possible good-faith reason for getting prescription drugs so you can give them to a sexual partner? Even if this isn’t hard proof of criminal behavior, it proves what most of us knew ever since Cosby thought it was okay to joke about spiking a woman’s drink–that he’s a depraved and debauched jerk. The chances of Cosby recovering from this are only slightly better than finding a needle in a haystack. See ya, Bill. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.

Darrell is a 30-something graduate of the University of North Carolina who considers himself a journalist of the old school. An attempt to turn him into a member of the religious right in college only succeeded in turning him into the religious right's worst nightmare--a charismatic Christian who is an unapologetic liberal. His desire to stand up for those who have been scared into silence only increased when he survived an abusive three-year marriage. You may know him on Daily Kos as Christian Dem in NC. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook. Click here to buy Darrell a Mello Yello.