Despite Cosby’s Decision, Andrea Constand Feels Like A ‘Symbol’


The call came just before noon.

Andrea Constand had returned to her downtown Toronto apartment after walking her dog Maddy in a nearby park when the Montgomery County district attorney’s office called. Wait, he’s been told, a decision on Bill Cosby’s appeal may soon be made by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

By June 30, Constand, the woman whose sexual assault disclosure led to the conviction of the man once known as America’s Father, was finding ways to overcome the trauma the trial brought to her daily life. He had sold his flat, was moving to the countryside north of the city, and was preparing to publish a memoir. “That moment” To detail his unique experience with Cosby and the criminal justice system.

While more than 50 women have accused Cosby of sexual misconduct, including assault, prosecutors – for various reasons – have only successfully brought criminal charges in his case. And now Cosby was in a prison far away, sentenced to three to 10 years in Pennsylvania after being found guilty of aggravated indecent assault three times.

He had already lost the appeal. The dust of what had once been created by the case, the verdict, the media attention focusing on his case as a breakthrough “moment” for the #MeToo era had largely subsided.

About an hour later the phone rang again.

“Andrea,” said Kate Delano, the district attorney’s communications director, “the Supreme Court overturned her conviction.”

For Constand and many others, perhaps that would be an understatement. decision It came as a shock. Cosby would not only go free: The court also ruled that he could not be tried again. Constand said he found it extremely disturbing that Cosby, still a wealthy and influential man, was released from prison, was not restrained, and was able to communicate with himself and others.

“I had a lump in my throat,” said Constand, 48, in a rare in-depth interview last month near his new home north of Toronto. “I really felt like they were releasing a predator, and it made me sick.”

Constand’s reaction to the court order and his long experience with the case are detailed in the diary, which will be published on Tuesday.

A few minutes after the second call, Constand was on his way to his sister’s house outside Toronto with his 22-year-old niece. From the car, Cosby spoke on the phone with Stewart Ryan and Kristen Gibbons, two former prosecutors who helped manage the case against Feden. They explained that Cosby would no longer be formally identified as a sexually violent predator, a status that requires lifetime public registration and community reporting – something that gives Constand special comfort.

She watched on television as she got out of the car at her sister’s home, near Philadelphia, where Cosby attacked her after giving her a sedative in 2004. He called his two lawyers, Bebe H. Kivitz and Dolores M. Troiani, on the phone, expressing their disappointment.

Otherwise, his phone would be blown up by calls from friends and other women who accused Cosby of sexual assault. The district attorney overseeing the prosecution, Kevin R. Steele, had called earlier and said that the verdict did not detract from its success.

Still, she said she was worried that other women might find it too difficult to stand out now. “It wasn’t just me,” he said, “that was the message he would send to the rest of the world and to other survivors, why should I fight for justice when he’s eventually robbed. It won’t matter.”

The first hearing in his case had ended with a hung jury. Cosby’s defense team insisted that his meeting with Constand was consensual. For the second hearing, prosecutors were allowed to testify from five additional women, like Constand, who said Cosby had drugged and sexually abused them.

The jury at the second hearing found him guilty In 2018, many would have focused on whether it was biased to allow women to testify from other events, if there were any appeals verdicts – it showed a pattern of abuse, prosecutors said.

But the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled on different grounds, holding that the district attorney was committed to a predecessor’s promise never to charge Cosby in the case. His predecessor said he had promised to persuade Cosby to testify in a subsequent civil lawsuit, and Cosby paid Constand $3.38 million to reach the verdict. During his expression In the civil suit, Cosby admitted giving quaalude to women as part of an effort to have sex with women, in a statement she said was unfairly brought on by the June decision in the 2018 lawsuit.

Constand does not downplay his words when it comes to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. He accuses Cosby of undoing all the work he and the others have done and “putting him out on the street” to bring Cosby to justice.

“After a few deep breaths, I felt that it wasn’t my problem,” he said. “Now that embarrassment made me feel like I was in the Supreme Court. It’s not on me anymore.”

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court said it supported an important assurance in its decision: Cosby’s due process rights had been violated. His decision was intended to prevent overstepping his dangerous prosecutorial authority.

Days after the decision, Constand said he received emails, texts and phone calls from people who were angry with the decision. Many of them were women who said they were attacked by Cosby and saw the 2018 guilty verdict as justice for them. Some of them were now his friends. “They were devastated, they were very angry,” he said.

The book was supposed to be updated just weeks after its release date. A publisher’s memo explained the verdict and said Cosby’s conviction was overturned “on a procedural matter”.

The statement Constand prepared with his lawyers was added as nearly 400 words to describe his reaction to the court’s decision.

“We cannot let moments of injustice silence us,” he wrote. “We have to talk over and over until we reach a real moment of change.”

The case accounts for roughly two-thirds of the 240-page book. Constand engages readers in his struggles with defense attorneys, who see him as a disillusioned lover in the first trial and a gold digger in the second. He talks about the bonds he established with the members of the jury, his long stays in hotel rooms, the stress and sacrifices his family had to make.

She writes that she got through it with the help of her poodles, her spirituality, and her empowering tattoos. (The word “Truth” is displayed above his chest as a large phoenix on his back.)

The book devotes some time to his childhood in Canada. his years as a basketball player He plays professionally at the University of Arizona and in Italy. He also explores his relationships and coming out as gay.

Credit…via Ron Bull/The Toronto Star, Associated

In her memoirs, Constand describes herself as “tired and fed up with what happened to me” and writes that Cosby stole the smile of a cheerful young woman who was the product of a nurturing family and a happy childhood. In an interview with The New York Times, she trusted her faith to sustain herself and talked about starting a new chapter in her life.

Constand launched the book, with help from co-author Meg Masters, more than a year before the court’s June decision, at the start of the pandemic lockdown, as a way to shut it down.

“The healer in me knew I had to dive into everything again and really try to remember, and that was really chilling for me sometimes,” she said. “Trauma is not hard-wired for you to remember. Wired for you to forget.”

At the time of writing, he contracted Covid-19 and was sick for six weeks on his couch in Toronto with “an elephant on my chest.” The experience, the encounter with his own mortality, pushed him to finish the book.

“I thought it was important to write stories for other survivors who had stories as well,” he said. “I wanted to be a symbol of hope for them. That their stories matter. And their stories matter.”

Despite the court’s ruling, he said years of hard work were by no means wasted. He stated that Cosby, now 84, spent nearly three years in prison. Publicity of the case helped change attitudes. Women were encouraged to come forward. When people believed, they believed them. A few of Cosby’s accusers helped successful legislative efforts Extending or eliminating state statutes of limitations in sexual assault cases.

“There have been so many victories along the way,” he said. “The community has paid attention”

Since the court’s decision, Cosby has said that Constand wants to re-emerge as a genuine public figure that he has to contend with. He took to social media to announce that his verdict had been exaggerated, establishing that his innocence had been confirmed, that he had not received a fair trial but failed to acquit him.

But he still has 3.2 million Twitter followers, and the day after the verdict he posted a clip describing the night Constand said he was hacked. This was paired with a statement that made it difficult for the media to report on his case.

Constand said the post showed a man emboldened by his new freedom and trying to use it to tarnish his reputation.

That same day, she retweeted a post from the sexual abuse support foundation that read, “Bill Cosby is not innocent.”

But otherwise, after modest publicity for her book, she said she intends to regain her privacy. She said she wasn’t planning a book tour and wanted to focus on her massage therapy business, which has been damaged by the pandemic, and a nonprofit she founded. Hope Healing and Transformation. It provides survivors of sexual assault with resources to help them understand trauma, such as a library, links to lawyers, and a platform to write their stories. A portion of the proceeds from his memories goes to the foundation.

He says it’s his destiny to take on Cosby, the “David and Goliath situation.”

But would he do it again?

Prosecutors are examining the possibility of an appeal. If they win, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s decision to block a third case may be overturned. Constand said he could put himself on another case if asked, but that it would be a difficult decision and he would have to consult his family.

“Yes, I would do it all over again,” he said. “If it was to do the right thing. I’d do anything as long as there’s the right reason.”

Regardless, he says, getting Cosby free shouldn’t change the outcome of the case.

“I hope it doesn’t deter anyone,” he said. “I hope people still find their voice. I hope they don’t see his freedom as a reason not to come forward. On the contrary, I hope they think if Andrea can do it, I can too.”



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