PENNSYLVANIA
NPR
Editor’s note: This post contains graphic descriptions that some may find disturbing.
Heidi Thomas — the first of several women expected to take the stand against Bill Cosby in his criminal retrial – described to the court on Tuesday how the comedian lured her to his Nevada ranch in 1984, drugged her and then forced her to perform oral sex.
Thomas’ testimony against the 80-year-old Cosby on charges that he sexually assaulted Andrea Constand at his Philadelphia home in 2004 was meant to bolster the prosecution’s case that the defendant has a long history of such assaults. Besides Constand, at least four other women are expected to provide similar testimony.
On the trial’s opening day on Monday, prosecutors revealed that Cosby paid a $3.4 million civil settlement to Constand in 2006.
Thomas, a 24-year-old aspiring actor at the time, said Cosby enticed her to fly to Reno on the pretext of giving her career advice.
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