Now that Bill Cosby has completed his Far From Finished comedy tour, new evidence has emerged to again demonstrate why his next plan should probably just involve removing the “far from” that title. The Associated Press reports that it has obtained documents from a deposition Cosby gave in 2005, in which the comedian admitted to procuring Quaaludes with the intent of giving them to women for sexual purposes.
The AP acquired the documents as part of its efforts to secure the release of deposition testimony in a sexual abuse lawsuit against Cosby. The testimony is from the first of many such cases brought against him, filed by former Temple University employee Andrea Constand. Cosby’s lawyers have fought the AP’s court actions on the grounds that the release would embarrass their client, although many of them likely privately long for the days when a little embarrassment was the most harm that could be caused their client, given the more than 40 accusations of harm their client has caused.
The deposition’s most damning item is this: When giving sworn testimony about the lawsuit accusing him of sexually assaulting Constand at his Pennsylvania home in 2005, he stated that in the ’70s, he acquired seven Quaalude prescriptions. Objections from Cosby’s lawyers stymied Constand’s lawyers efforts to find out if he had kept the sedative in the ensuing decades, after they were banned. But then comes the following exchange:
“When you got the quaaludes, was it in your mind that you were going to use these quaaludes for young women that you wanted to have sex with?” lawyer Dolores M. Troiani asked.
“Yes,” Cosby answered on Sept. 29, 2005.
“Did you ever give any of these young women the quaaludes without their knowledge?”
Cosby’s lawyer again objected, leading Troiani to petition the federal judge to force Cosby to cooperate.
Eventually, Cosby said he had given Constand three half-pills of Benadryl—you know, the way you do when someone doesn’t ask you for any Benadryl. Troani also expresses skepticism that Benadryl was the drug he gave her, probably for the exact same reasons it sounds fishy to us. The two other women testifying on Constand’s behalf in the trial did say they were aware Cosby was giving them quaaludes at the time.
And so continues the depressing accumulation of evidence against Bill Cosby. It also demonstrates why, if you’re going to make part of your stand-up routine be about ”Spanish Fly”—a.k.a. drugs you put in women’s drinks to make them have sex with you—maybe don’t call that album It’s True! It’s True! Better yet, maybe go back in time and realize that buying drugs to make women have sex with you is already part of a much bigger problem.