Bill Cosby paid Andrea Constand nearly 3.4 million dollars (2.8 million euros) in 2006 in order not to take him to court. The prosecutor announced this on Monday during his opening statement in the second handling of the abuse case against the comedian.
The statement was a strategic move by the public prosecutor. The amount last year was not mentioned in the case about alleged abuse of Constand.
It is precisely the team of Cosby pleading in the run-up to this lawsuit for the admission of the settlement documents as evidence. The judge agreed. It is expected that the lawyers of The Cosby Show star will use the amount to put Constand as a profiteer. The prosecutor brought the money out now to be ahead of them.
During the opening statement, according to Deadline, the prosecutor elaborately explained the investigation into Cosby. He explained, among other things, how it could take more than ten years before the investigation into Cosby led to an indictment.
In his statement, prosecutor Kevin Steele stated that the investigation team had approached Constand in response to reports from Cosby’s testimony in a civil case. “She did not come to us, and after these documents were released, we went to her and asked her to cooperate.”
Postponed
In fact, the Cosby team would also come out with an opening statement on Monday. That was postponed after they had submitted a motion against one of the jury members. This person would have told another potential juror last week that Cosby is guilty.
The judge spoke Monday morning with all jurors and saw no reason to remove one of them. Because the case was delayed by five hours, the declaration of the defense was postponed to Tuesday.
