Bill Cosby’s accusers say they feel vindicated after testimony

While many of Bill Cosby’s accusers feel vindicated by his decade-old admission that he gave at least one woman quaaludes before sex, some of his Hollywood friends are reserving judgment, saying the testimony doesn’t prove he committed a crime.

The testimony, unsealed on Monday by a federal judge, reignited the furore that erupted last year, when dozens of women came forward to accuse the comedian of sexual assault over the past four decades. Many said Cosby drugged and raped them.

“I never thought I would be validated or vindicated in this”, said Joan Tarshis, of Woodstock, New York, who accused Cosby of drugging and attacking her when she was breaking into comedy writing in 1969.

“I mean, it’s turned my life around 180 degrees because now all the people that haven’t believed me or us have come out, most of them, and said, ‘We were wrong.’”

The testimony came from a deposition in a 2005 sexual abuse lawsuit brought against Cosby by a former Temple University basketball team employee, Andrea Constand.

The case was settled on confidential terms, but it was the first in a torrent of lawsuits that have shattered Cosby’s good-guy image as wise and understanding Dr Cliff Huxtable on The Cosby Show in the 1980s and 1990s.

Questioned under oath, Cosby acknowledged giving quaaludes to a 19-year-old woman before they had sex in Las Vegas in 1976. He also admitted giving the powerful, now-banned sedative to unidentified others.

His lawyer intervened before he could answer questions about how many women were given drugs and whether they knew it.