Kelly Johnson, the first witness for the prosecution in the criminal trial against Bill Cosby for sexual assault against Andrea Constand, broke down and wept as she recalled an alleged assault by Cosby at the Bel Air hotel in 1996.
The sobbing witness, a former William Morris assistant, recalled how Cosby had invited her for lunch but how it quickly transpired that the lunch which she had assumed would be at the hotel was in a bungalow he had reserved. She recalled that he answered the door dressed in a bathrobe and slippers. He tried to get her to drink wine but she described herself as ‘not much of a drinker.’
As she described her increasing discomfort her voice trembled and she clutched a tissue as she related how he told her ‘You look like you need to relax.’ Mining her memory she said ‘He held his hand like this, ‘she clenched her first before her. ‘He opened his hand and there was a big white pill in his palm.’ Under extreme duress Johnson said she decided to feign taking it, intending to hide it under her tongue and spit it out in the bathroom. But when she pretended to swallow it with water he offered her wine and said: ‘Open your mouth. Lift up your tongue. And I did and there it was.’ She then swallowed. Soon, she said she felt ‘underwater.’
