Cosby lawyer attacks accuser as prosecutors build case
NORRISTOWN, Pa. — Bill Cosby’s retrial took a far more combative turn Tuesday than the first go-round, as his lawyers launched a scathing attack on his accuser and prosecutors put the first in a parade of women on the stand to portray the comedian as a sexual predator.
Heidi Thomas, who was a 24-year-old aspiring actress in 1984 when she met Cosby in Reno, Nevada, testified he knocked her out with a potent glass of wine and forced her to perform oral sex.
Prosecutors have lined up five accusers in all to make the case that the TV star once revered as “America’s Dad” made a habit of drugging and assaulting women well before he was charged with violating Andrea Constand at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004.
Cosby’s lawyer urged jurors to ignore the other accusers — calling them irrelevant to this case — but saved most of his fire for Constand, branding her a “con artist” who tried to frame the comedian for the money.