PENNSYLVANIA
Variety
Emilie Lounsberry
NORRISTOWN, Pa. – After a defense opening that portrayed Bill Cosby as the victim of phony sexual assault accusations, a Colorado music teacher testified Tuesday that Cosby molested her back in 1984 when she was a struggling actress and he had agreed to mentor her.
The woman, Heidi Thomas, took the stand in Cosby’s retrial here in suburban Philadelphia as prosecutors sought to show that Andrea Constand – the woman whose accusation is at the heart of the criminal case against Cosby – was not the only woman assaulted by the entertainer.
Thomas testified that she traveled to Reno to meet Cosby and ended up staying with him at a ranch outside of town. He gave her a script and asked her to play an intoxicated woman, she said, eventually offering her some white wine. She then became woozy, she said, and woke up in bed with a naked Cosby “forcing himself” into her mouth.
Thomas, then about 24, said she felt sickened yet also felt that she must have done something to lead Cosby to believe she would engage in sexual activity. “I must have given some signal,” said Thomas, who said she later consulted a psychologist. “I did feel like I must have said something that was misunderstood.”
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