text: (CNN) Bill Cosby has been accused by more than 50 women of sexual assault -- and the sheer weight of that number has led to crushing condemnation in the court of public opinion. 
   
   But when he faces a court of law Monday, Cosby's fate will hang on testimony from just two of his accusers. "There is a big contrast," said James Cohen, a criminal law professor at Fordham. 
   
   "What Cosby is hoping for is that the jury forgets about the other 48." 
   
   Cosby, 79, faces three counts of aggravated indecent assault for allegedlydrugging and assaulting Andrea Constand, a Temple University employee, in 2004. He has denied the accusations since 2005, when Constand first went to the police. 
   
   The district attorney at that time declined to press charges -- and in 2006 Cosby settled a civil suit with Constand that remained sealed for almost a decade. 
   
   'Google Bill Cosby rape' 
   
   Bill Cosby arrives at the Montgomery County courthouse in November. 
   
   The legal landscape began to change unexpectedly for Cosby in October 2014, when video of a routine by comedian Hannibal Buress went viral. The performance focused sharply on Cosby and the allegations against him. 
   
   "When you leave here, google 'Bill Cosby rape,'" the comedian told an audience at a comedy club in Cosby's hometown of Philadelphia. 
   
   "It's not funny. That s*** has more results than 'Hannibal Buress.'" 
   
   In the months that followed, dozens of women came forward with more claims against Cosby. Many told similar stories ; they said Cosby had drugged and then assaulted them. 
   
   In a statement to CNN in November 2014 Cosby's attorney, Martin D. Singer, denied what he called "unsubstantiated, fantastical stories," which were becoming "increasingly ridiculous." 
   
   The growing number of accusers and heightened public interest in the case would be instrumental in a judge's subsequent decision to unseal Cosby's deposition in Constand's civil suit. 
   
   Cosby's public persona also played a part in that ruling . Even as the number of accusations against him rose, Cosby had continued to make statements about what he saw as the flaws and failings of many African-American families. As a much-loved family entertainer and "America's dad," he chose to cast himself as a conservative role model and moral compass for that community. 
   
   That will be on full display when Cosby walks into court: He'll be escorted into the courthouse by Keisha Knight Pulliam, who played his daughter, Rudy Huxtable, on "The Cosby Show," according to Andrew Wyatt, Cosby's media representative. 
   
   In explaining his decision to unseal the deposition, US District Judge Eduardo Robreno cited the "stark contrast" between "Bill Cosby, the public moralist," and "Bill Cosby, the subject of serious allegations." 
   
   In the deposition, Cosby said he had engaged in consensual sexual activity with Constand -- and that he had obtained Quaaludes in order to give them to women with whom he wanted to have sex. The unsealed deposition was central to Cosby's arrest in December 2015. 
   
   Cosby has no plans to testify 
   
   Bill Cosby solidified his stardom as Dr. Cliff Huxtable in "The Cosby Show." 
   
   Despite the volume of compelling accounts from dozens of accusers, only Constand's story will be the focus of the upcoming trial. 
   
   The jury will hear testimony from just one other accuser at trial as prosecutors seek to establish that Cosby's alleged actions toward Constand were part of a pattern of behavior. Prosecutors had sought to include testimony from 13 other accusers, but Judge Steven O'Neill ruled that would be too prejudicial. 
   
   Cosby has said he does not plan to testify. His deposition from the civil suit will stand as his explanation of what happened -- which means the trial likely will hinge on a classic case of "he said, she said." 
   
   "It's going to be basically two people in the room and they're going to have very different versions of the event," said Barry Coburn, a defense lawyer based in Washington. 
   
   "And the jury is going to have to decide." 
   
   Cosby's rise to fame 
   
   Bill Cosby adjusts his bow tie in a promotional portrait from 1969. 
   
   It would be hard to overstate Cosby's impact on the entertainment industry and popular culture in America. 
   
   The Philadelphia native enjoyed a steady rise to extraordinary, global fame. By the early 60s he had achieved widespread recognition as a standup comedian and Grammy winning recording artist. He was the first black actor to co-star in a leading dramatic role on US TV -- in the espionage series "I Spy." 
   
   In 1966, he won an Emmy for that role -- another first for an African-American performer. He starred in movies opposite Sidney Poitier and in the 70s developed the animated "Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids" series for TV. 
   
   In the 1980s, he reached another generation of fans by turning the lives of the Huxtables, a black, middle-class New York family, into a beloved and groundbreaking sitcom. Over the course of multiple award-winning seasons of "The Cosby Show," he starred as sweater-loving father figure Dr. Cliff Huxtable. The role cemented his place among the most prominent of celebrities. 
   
   Cosby's serial successes translated into extraordinary fame and considerable influence -- and he relished the opportunity to use his lofty status as a platform to make public pronouncements about social responsibility and parenting. 
   
   In 2004, at an NAACP event commemorating the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, Cosby delivered what came to be known as the "Pound Cake" speech , in which he argued that crime in the black community was in part due to bad parenting and a lack of personal responsibility. 
   
   "Looking at the incarcerated, these are not political criminals," Cosby said. 
   
   "These are people going around stealing Coca-Cola. People getting shot in the back of the head over a piece of pound cake! Then we all run out and are outraged: 'The cops shouldn't have shot him.' What the hell was he doing with the pound cake in his hand?" 
   
   Constand's accusations 
   
   Andrea Constand said she was assaulted by Cosby at his home in 2004. 
   
   In 2005, Andrea Constand told police that she was drugged and assaulted by Cosby. Constand, the director of operations for the women's basketball team at Temple at the time, had struck up a friendship with Cosby, a Temple alumnus who was 37 years her senior. 
   
   Sometime between mid-January and mid-February in 2004, Cosby invited Constand to his home in the suburbs of Philadelphia to discuss her future career plans. She told him she was "drained" and had been missing sleep, the criminal complaint states. 
   
   Cosby told her to relax and gave her three blue pills, saying "these will make you feel good. The blue things will take the edge off," according to the complaint. She asked if the pills were herbal and he said they were. After telling Cosby she trusted him, she downed the pills with water. He then offered her wine to drink, and after some pushing, she took a couple of sips, according to the criminal complaint. 
   
   She began experiencing blurred vision and difficulty speaking, lost all strength in her legs, and was "in and out," she told police. According to the complaint, Cosby positioned himself behind her on the sofa, penetrated her vagina with his fingers and put her hand on his penis. She told police that she felt "frozen" and "paralyzed" and did not consent to the touching. 
   
   Constand woke up in the early morning and discovered that her bra was undone and had been moved above her breasts, according to the complaint. 
   
   About a year later, Constand told her mother about the assault, and Mrs. Constand spoke with Cosby over the phone to confront him. In that conversation, Cosby admitted to fondling Constand's breasts, penetrating her vagina, and putting her hand on his penis, according to the criminal complaint. 
   
   A criminal investigation was opened. In an interview with police, Cosby said that the pills he gave Constand were over-the-counter Benadryl. He described their sexual encounter as consensual, and he said she never told him to stop or mentioned that her senses were affected by the Benadryl. 
   
   Cosby also gave an unusual answer when asked if he ever had sexual intercourse with Constand: "Never asleep or awake," he said. 
   
   District Attorney Bruce Castor declined to press charges in 2005. 
   
   Constand filed a civil suit against Cosby shortly after, and Cosby gave a deposition in that case. He and Constand settled the civil suit in 2006. 
   
   Dozens of accusers 
   
   Hannibal Buress' stand-up routine about Bill Cosby reignited the issue. 
   
   Cosby had remained very much in the public spotlight when, a decade later, video of Buress' stand-up performance created a renewed interest in the accusations. Fresh claims began to trickle out. 
   
   Joan Tarshis, a journalist and publicist, told CNN that Cosby had assaulted her 45 years ago when he gave her a drink that made her groggy and she woke up to him removing her underwear. 
   
   Janice Dickinson, the supermodel and TV personality, accused Cosby of sexually assaulting her in 1982 after he gave her a pill and a glass of red wine. 
   
   But public opinion had shifted and, as the number of complaints continued to climb, many gave more credence to the dozens of women and their stories of being drugged and raped. 
   
   Cosby's comedy specials were canceled or put on hold and a number of colleges and institutions cut ties with the now-radioactive comedian. "The sensitivity to women who are sexually harassed or touched without permission has changed dramatically in the last 12 to 13 years," said James Cohen, a criminal law professor at Fordham. 
   
   After a request from the Associated Press, Cosby's deposition in Constand's civil suit was unsealed in July 2015. Cosby's attorneys argued that he only gave that deposition because the district attorney at the time promised never to bring a criminal case based on the accusations. 
   
   However, the release of the deposition led the new district attorney to file criminal charges in December 2015. 
   
   Many of his accusers see the charges as a form of vindication -- no matter the trial's outcome. Heidi Thomas, who accused Cosby of assaulting her in 1984, told CNN that she was "thrilled" to learn he would be charged with a crime. "Is it going to become something that eventually will send him to prison?" she wondered. "Wow. That would be the ultimate victory. I don't know." 
   
   Major issues at trial 
   
   The jury will be faced with two competing accounts of what happened. 
   
   Despite the dozens of accusations, Cosby's trial will in many ways come down to a "he said-she said" argument common to sexual assault cases, legal experts predict. 
   
   "Those cases always carry potential problems for both sides," said attorney Coburn. 
   
   On one side is Constand, now 44, whose testimony of the alleged assault will be the crux of the prosecution's case against Cosby. Though the trial will center on her accusations, jurors will likely be familiar with the many other accusations against Cosby that were covered widely in the media. 
   
   "The media and prejudice from that is the most powerful (issue) to overcome here," said Sara Webster, a criminal defense attorney in Pennsylvania. "There are people who can step back and say, 'Well, I'll stick with what I just hear in the courtroom,' but you know there's an imprint that occurs over time." 
   
   Cosby's attorneys are likely to argue that Constand didn't report the alleged assault until almost a year after she said it happened and will question her version of events. The case has very little forensic evidence, and the defense will try to point out inconsistencies in Constand's story. 
   
   "Time is the enemy for any criminal case," said Jordan Friter, an attorney in Pennsylvania. "Most people couldn't tell you what they had for dinner last night, let alone what happened 13 years ago." 
   
   "The defense is going to be looking for inconsistencies, and is going to claim that the passage of time doesn't excuse (them). The prosecution will use time for any excuse for inconsistencies," said Fordham law professor James Cohen. "That's sort of how the discussion will go." 
   
   Still, Cosby's decision not to testify will make his case "difficult" for jurors, according to Webster. 
   
   "(Jurors) want a denial. It's tough when you have a client that isn't going to take the stand," Webster said. 
   
   Legally speaking, the result of the trial will not directly affirm or deny any of the other accusations against Cosby. But the verdict's impact on the public consciousness is a different story. 
   
   "I think the result of this trial will probably have a lot to do with the way people look at him," said attorney Barry Coburn. "A trial is a powerful thing. It's drama, it's public, and I think people tend to invest the result with a lot of credit." ||||| Opening arguments begin Monday in one of the most high-profile criminal trials in American history. After decades of skirting prosecution, comedy legend Bill Cosby is finally being made to answer one of the 60 women who have accused him of sexual assault. But the proceedings won't just determine whether the allegedly frail and increasingly blind Cosby ends his life in a prison cell—they will also help shape how America talks about rape, race, and celebrity for decades. 
   
   It's tempting to think of the case as a slam dunk given that Cosby's basically already been found guilty in the court of public opinion. Library patrons have taken to rejecting his books in large numbers, cities have dismantled likenesses of him like they were monuments of the Confederacy, and the media has come to an unusual consensus in such a polarized era that this guy is worthy of titles like "America's abusive father." 
   
   The reality isn't nearly that simple. Cosby is on trial for something that allegedly happened back in 2004—when George W. Bush was president, the Abu Ghraib prison scandal was breaking, and Sex and the City was still on HBO. Superstar basketball player Kobe Bryant dodged his own sexual assault case that September (thanks in no small part to shoddy prosecution) and went on to enjoy another decade at the top of his profession. 
   
   Not only was this a different cultural moment, but in 2004, texting was far from ubiquitous and social media had yet to take America by storm. Which is to say that there aren't as many electronic records to corroborate Andrea Constand's account as there might be if the incident took place today. 
   
   Constand also did not go to a hospital to get a toxicology report or rape kit after the fact, something that Jane Anderson, a legal expert at AEQuitas—a group that helps prosecutors build sexual assault cases—says is crucial. According to her, jurors have come to expect DNA evidence thanks in part to police procedural shows like CSI and NCIS and are reluctant to convict without it. 
   
   Anderson is already sweating the optics of an acquittal. There's basically no one in America who hasn't heard about the staggering number of women who've come forward against Cosby. She says that if Cosby gets off, the public will likely conflate that one verdict with complete innocence—which could make it seem futile for some victims to pursue justice. 
   
   "It's not gonna matter in the Cosby case that there's one victim listed in the complaint and that all the jurors are going be instructed to listen to is the evidence in front of them," Anderson says. "In the public's perception, they're going think about the 60 victims who came forward. If he's found not guilty, it's probably going to read to a layperson that 60 people accused him and he was found not guilty of 60 rapes. So will it have that sort of negative snowball effect of, 'Well, it's just me going forward, how will I possibly convince a jury?'" 
   
   Back in October 2014, comedian Hannibal Buress joked onstage about long-standing accusations that Cosby was a rapist. The bit went viral, which helped encourage many more women to come forward with stories about being drugged and attacked by the former Jell-O spokesman. Of the women who pursued criminal charges, only a former Temple University basketball coach and Canadian citizen named Andrea Constand succeeded. That's in part because victims of sex crimes in America have historically had a short timeframe in which to go to the cops. 
   
   Cosby's problems went from mere embarrassment, ridicule, and professional isolation to potential criminal liability after Constand's 2005 civil suit against him was unsealed in July 2015. In it, Cosby spoke cavalierly about using quaaludes to get women to sleep with him. Public outrage mounted, which put pressure on the Montgomery County District Attorney's office outside Philadelphia to press charges while it still could. In the November 2015 election, Kevin Steele was elected as the new district attorney on a campaign pledge of going after America's Least Favorite Dad. 
   
   Just weeks before the window of opportunity was set to close, Steele made good on that promise. Now a jury will determine whether the 79-year-old once slipped three pills and a glass of wine to Constand so he could fondle and penetrate her, as alleged in an affidavit. 
   
   Cosby's defense attorney, Angela Agrusa, has already hinted at the strategy she intends to pursue, telling the Hollywood Reporter in April that she planned to "rehabilitate his reputation" and paint him as the victim of a media witch hunt. She'll also work on framing the DA as an opportunistic politician who wouldn't have even revived the case had it not won him the election. Meanwhile, two of Cosby's daughters released statements on syndicated hip-hop radio show The Breakfast Club saying they thought the case against their dad was based on racism. 
   
   Constand will also almost certainly get grilled by Agrusa about her motivations for hanging out with Cosby in the first place, a trope of sexual assault trials. Constand has previously said the comedian made aggressive sexual advances toward her prior to the alleged assault, which gives Cosby's defense attorney the opportunity to try and portray whatever happened between the two as consensual. 
   
   All of the defense's strategies—from playing up peoples' tendency toward hero-worship with celebrities to subtly invoking the history of black men being lynched for alleged sexual behavior toward white women to victim blaming—will appeal to the psychology of the three main camps of people still defending Cosby. There are some who have lionized him for so long that they can't believe he's fallible. There are others who find it impossible to disentangle the accusations from the fact that Cosby is black and successful and most (though by no means all) of his accusers are white women. And others who still don't get why women often do not report sexual assault right after the fact. 
   
   Meanwhile, the prosecution will likely be trying to establish that what they say Cosby did to Constand constituted a pattern of behavior. Although they originally requested that 13 other women be allowed to testify, the judge has only allowed one other alleged victim to take the stand. Whatever that former assistant to one of Cosby's agents says—and of course whether the jury believes her—is likely to prove pivotal given the Constand case evidence largely comes down to he-said-she-said. 
   
   Along with his own words from the 2005 deposition, Cosby's prosecutors can also call witnesses who knew Constand before the alleged assault as well as after in an attempt to show how her behavior or habits might have changed. 
   
   The stakes are high. Kristen Houser of the National Sexual Violence Resource Center says that if Cosby is found guilty, it will go a long way in encouraging women to come forward if they've been assaulted. The fact that so many women have been so public about the accusations—many going so far as to be photographed for a New York feature back in July 2016—coupled with the fact that Cosby is one of the most famous men in the world could have a trickle-down effect and erase some of the stigma of being "out" as a victim. 
   
   "There are other people out there who have been very afraid to come forward, and I do think that high-publicity cases can be encouraging or inspiring to people who are wondering whether or not to report what's happened to them," Houser says. " I think a lot of survivors see a lot of people bravely stepping into a public arena with a high-profile alleged assailant, and they think that they can take on one where the stakes aren't quite so high. I do think people are paying attention." 
   
   Constand, who is gay, will also probably face probing questions about her sexual history. The defense team might even go so far as to interview people from her past to find out if she ever had a boyfriend. If she endures this kind of invasion to no avail, it's worth wondering if some women might decide it's simply not worth the exposure and scrutiny to go after the most powerful men in the country. Certainly some of the women who spoke out against Donald Trump have endured their own blowback—and America saw how little those allegations cost the president last November. Cosby, for his part, at least initially tried to silence accusers by suing seven of them for defamation. 
   
   No matter what happens in court, the trial will resume the national dialogue about sexual assault that was put on hold when an accused assailant won the presidency. That includes the statutes of limitations, which make these cases so hard to bring. Some states have already begun to expand or even eliminate them thanks in part to the Cosby Effect: victims feeling emboldened to speak up years or even decades later. The comedian was awful close to being in the clear forever just because 12 years had passed since his alleged night with Constand––a number advocates like House call "truly arbitrary." 
   
   "When you've got almost 60 people who can't take any actions against an alleged rapist because the statute of limitations have expired," she says, "you're gonna have a national conversation about it no matter what." 
   
   Follow Allie Conti on Twitter. ||||| Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. 
   
   NORRISTOWN, Pa. — As Bill Cosby's sexual assault trial opened Monday, there was a reminder of his former reputation as "America's Dad" — the actress who played his youngest daughter on TV. 
   
   Keshia Knight Pulliam, 38, who played Rudy Huxtable on "The Cosby Show," accompanied the comedian into the Montgomery County courthouse, where he stands accused of drugging and molesting a woman at his home in 2004. 
   
   Bill Cosby arrives for the first day of his sexual assault trial at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pennsylvania on June 5, 2017. Brendan McDermid / Reuters 
   
   Neither Cosby nor Pulliam spoke as they entered. 
   
   Gloria Allred, the attorney who represents some of the dozens of women who have accused Cosby of sexual misconduct, called it an "historic day." 
   
   "It's the first time Mr. Cosby will have to face his accusers in criminal court," Allred said. 
   
   A handful of those women traveled to be at the green-domed courthouse in small-town Pennsylvania. 
   
   "I haven't seen him since 1969," said Victoria Valentino, 74, who says Cosby drugged and raped her in Los Angeles nearly five decades ago. 
   
   "I hope he makes eye contact because I'd love to look him in the eye and stare him down." 
   
   Related: 'No Fear': Andrea Constand Ready to Confront Cosby at Trial 
   
   Cosby, 79, is on trial for allegedly assaulting just one woman, Andrea Constand, who worked for his alma mater, Temple University. 
   
   She claims that after two years of friendship and mentorship, the star turned predator, giving her pills that incapacitated her and then molesting her while she lay "paralyzed." 
   
   Cosby has portrayed the encounter as consensual, saying he gave Constand two Benadryl pills to help her relax. He has pleaded not guilty to three counts of aggravated indecent assault, denied all other allegations and sued some of his accusers for defamation. 
   
   The "I Spy" actor, who says glaucoma has left him legally blind, does not intend to take the stand. Constand, who settled a lawsuit against Cosby in 2006, will testify. Other potential witnesses include: 
   
   Prior Alleged Victim No. 6: Also known by the pseudonym Kacey, she is the only one of the other accusers who can testify. A former assistant to Cosby's late agent, she alleges that in 1996, after Cosby insisted she take a pill, she woke up in bed with the half-naked entertainer. 
   
   An unnamed William Morris Agency employee who the defense contends can contradict Kacey's account of her interaction with Cosby. 
   
   A psychologist who will discuss the behavior of sex-abuse victims. Prosecutors may use her testimony to try to explain why Constand waited a year to report the alleged assault to police. 
   
   Pharmaceutical experts who will testify about the effects of Benadryl and Quaaludes, the latter of which Cosby has admitted he gave to women for sex in the 1970s. 
   
   Although the jury was chosen in the Pittsburgh area, the trial is taking place in Montgomery County in the Philadelphia suburb of Norristown. 
   
   Barricades ringed the columned courthouse on Sunday night in anticipation of big crowds, but as of 7 a.m., there were only a few spectators lined up to get in. 
   
   Bill Parker, 43, who owns a donut shop said the he thought the trial "would be an incredible event to witness." 
   
   "He has been an idol to us," Parker said. "To hear the accusations was quite a shocker." 
   
   Parker said he was "trying to remain neutral" on the question of whether Cosby attacked Constand. "But I'm already disappointed he confessed to extramarital affairs," he said. "It doesn't connect with the man we thought he was." 
   
   Other local residents said they had not paid much attention to the legal drama that had played out at the courthouse over the last year. 
   
   "I don't know what's happening," said one 15-year-old walking by the stately building. "Who is Bill Cosby?" ||||| Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. 
   
   / Updated By Hannah Rappleye and Tracy Connor 
   
   She has told her story to police and prosecutors. Now she will tell it to 12 strangers — and the rest of the world. 
   
   In the coming days, Andrea Constand will take the witness stand at Bill Cosby's sexual assault trial and give a sworn account of what happened between them at his Pennsylvania home one night in 2004. And then she will have to defend her version under vigorous cross-examination, with the comedian's lawyers and the public scrutinizing her every word. 
   
   Andrea Constand walks in a park in Toronto on Dec. 30, 2015. Mark Blinch / Reuters file 
   
   It would be a daunting prospect for anyone, especially someone as private as Constand, who has never given a wide-ranging interview or held a press conference about the encounter that could send Cosby to prison for the rest of his life. 
   
   But according to a close friend, the 44-year-old Canadian massage therapist is approaching the court battle with the same quiet intensity and grounded confidence she once displayed as a top athlete. 
   
   "There's no trepidation, no fear," said Donna Motsinger, one of dozens of other women who have accused Cosby of sexual misconduct — charges he denies. 
   
   "She is prepared for this moment. She used to play basketball and she prepared for those games like nobody else and that is what she has done here." 
   
   It was basketball that brought Constand into Cosby's orbit through a chance meeting that would upend both of their lives and lay the groundwork for the extraordinary scandal that has unfolded over the last two years. 
   
   A high-school standout in her native Canada, Constand was recruited by the University of Arizona and went on to play pro ball in Italy before taking a job as the director of operations for the women's team at Temple University. 
   
   Cosby, one of the biggest celebrities in the nation, was an alum of Temple, and that's where he first met Constand in the winter of 2001 during a basketball game. 
   
   Andrea Constand poses for a photo in Toronto on Aug. 1, 1987. Ron Bull / The Toronto Star/The Canadian Press via AP 
   
   He has testified that he was instantly attracted to the "good-looking" six-footer with a wild mane of curly hair and beaming smile. Cosby, who was then in his mid-60s, said he had no idea that Constand, then in her late 20s, was gay and had been in relationships with women since high school. 
   
   Phone calls led to invitations for dinners and other events. The long-married actor known as "America's Dad" has said that while he took a sexual interest in Constand, he also assumed the role of "mentor" and tried to help her break into a career in broadcasting. 
   
   In a statement to police, Cosby claimed he and Constand engaged in "petting" on three occasions before the incident tied to the criminal charges. But she says the only earlier contact was when Cosby touched her leg after a dinner at his house, a moment she says she did not welcome and that "embarrassed" her. 
   
   "We were not involved in any romantic relationship," she later told police. 
   
   This much is not in dispute: In early 2004, Cosby invited Constand to his sprawling home in Cheltenham Township. They talked about her decision to move away from sports and pursue a career in massage. She said she was emotionally drained and had missed sleep, and he told her she needed to relax. 
   
   Cosby went upstairs and returned with pills. She described them as three oblong blue tablets that he said were herbal and encouraged her to wash down with red wine. Cosby says it was two tabs of Benadryl, one of them broken in half. 
   
   "These will make you feel good," he said, according to Constand. "Down them." 
   
   Comedian Bill Cosby at Temple University's commencement Thursday, May 12, 2011, in Philadelphia. Matt Rourke / AP file 
   
   Cosby claims that what happened next — "touching and kissing with clothes on" — was consensual. "I enjoyed it," he told police. 
   
   Constand says there was no consent; she couldn't even speak. Within 30 minutes, her vision was blurry and her legs like jelly, she said. She felt "spacy" and nauseous and could not keep her eyes open. Then Cosby was with her on the sofa, aroused, touching her breasts and genitals, she recalled. 
   
   "I was pretty much frozen," she told police. "I was unable to speak. I was like paralyzed." 
   
   When she came to, she said, it was around 4 a.m. A robed Cosby appeared and gave her a muffin and sent her on her way. 
   
   Over the next year, she saw him twice. 
   
   That March, he invited her to a restaurant where he was meeting with honor students from a local school; she said she went because she hoped to confront him, and went to his house afterward to talk. When she told him she was "uncomfortable" about what had occurred, "he was confused," Constand told police. And she bolted when he sat down close to her. 
   
   In the summer, he called and invited her to see one of his shows in Canada. She took her parents and brought him a sweater as a gift. The defense will likely seize on that as a sign that Constand was not traumatized, but prosecutors have permission to present an expert to testify such behavior is not unusual in sexual assault survivors. 
   
   Constand's mother, Gianna, a medical secretary, has said her daughter was withdrawn and plagued by nightmares after she left Temple and returned to live with them in Canada. She didn't know why until January 2005, when Constand had what she called "a flashback" and told her mother everything she remembered. 
   
   They called Canadian police the next day — and then they called Cosby, who told police he assured them that there was no "penile penetration." Several more calls followed; in one that was recorded and can be played at trial, Cosby promised to reveal the name of the medication he gave Constand and offered to pay for her schooling. 
   
   Her father Andy, a massage therapist, told the Toronto Sun at the time that Constand had no interest in Cosby's money; it was her "code of ethics" that made her come forward. 
   
   "She helps people who are poor, people who are sick. She'd give you the shirt off her back," he said. "She's not the type of person to lie. When she says something, it's the truth." 
   
   Pennsylvania authorities opened an investigation into Constand's complaint, but then-District Attorney Bruce Castor declined to prosecute. He later said he thought she would have a better chance of getting justice in civil court. 
   
   Constand did file a lawsuit, which named 12 other "Jane Does" who alleged they had been sexually assaulted. Cosby was forced to sit for the now-infamous deposition in which he discussed giving Quaaludes to women for sex in the 1970s — another detail the jury will hear. 
   
   Andrea Constand walks her dogs in Toronto, Canada on December 31, 2015. Marta Iwanek / AP file 
   
   The suit was settled in 2006 for an undisclosed sum, and the scandal faded away. For a decade, Constand was out of the spotlight, living in Toronto with her beloved dogs and launching a massage practice that focuses on the elderly and the sick. 
   
   Then, in 2014, a scathing one-liner about Cosby's history by comedian Hannibal Buress went viral, bringing new attention to old allegations. Week by week, new women came forward to accuse Cosby of everything from making unwanted advances to drugging and raping them. 
   
   A judge ordered Cosby's deposition from the civil suit unsealed, and Pennsylvania prosecutors reopened the investigation into Constand's complaint. In December 2015, the DA charged Cosby with three counts of aggravated indecent assault, to which he pleaded not guilty. 
   
   Constand has refused to be sucked into the frenzy, giving no interviews beyond brief comments to a Canadian newspaper that she did not want to talk about Cosby. "It's in the past," she said. "I have a whole other life and I am happy." 
   
   Her social media accounts suggest a woman who is deeply spiritual, loves the outdoors, and is close to her family. Her toned arms are covered in tattoos. 
   
   In October 2015, she posted a photo of her forearm. Below an inked caduceus, the symbol of medicine, was a wristband with words "Consent is...," part of a campaign by an advocacy group to end sexual violence. Constand completed the phrase in her post: "It's a conversation away." 
   
   Other accusers, whose claims are beyond the statute of limitations for criminal charges, speak with almost-awed admiration for Constand and say she will, in a way, be representing all of them when she takes the stand. 
   
   Heidi Thomas, a former model who says she was attacked in 1984, called Constand a "hero" for agreeing to testify. Beth Ferrier, who says Cosby raped her during an affair in the mid-1980s, choked up while talking about wanting to give her a hug. 
   
   "I don't know how she's prepping for it but I know she has the core values and ability to tell the truth and not stammer and not second-guess herself. She's just an incredibly honest person who deserves the ability to speak her truth," Ferrier said. 
   
   "I'm really super-proud of her ... It takes guts." 
   
   Motsinger, who has become a maternal figure to Constand since the civil suit, said she has no doubt Cosby's lawyers will try to break her on the stand, and no doubt they will fail. 
   
   "They will have to try to discredit her truth and I believe this will be almost impossible for them to do," Motsinger said. 
   
   "I really feel like she is the person who is supposed to be there out of all the women. There is nobody better in this moment in my opinion." ||||| These crawls are part of an effort to archive pages as they are created and archive the pages that they refer to. That way, as the pages that are referenced are changed or taken from the web, a link to the version that was live when the page was written will be preserved.Then the Internet Archive hopes that references to these archived pages will be put in place of a link that would be otherwise be broken, or a companion link to allow people to see what was originally intended by a page's authors.The goal is to fix all broken links on the web . Crawls of supported "No More 404" sites.
target: – Bill Cosby's trial for allegedly assaulting Andrea Constand begins Monday, and at least one member of his former TV family will reportedly be watching from the sidelines, per NBC News. Keshia Knight Pulliam, 38, who played little Rudy Huxtable on The Cosby Show, is expected to be in the Norristown, Pa., courthouse to watch the proceedings against her 79-year-old former boss, with Cosby spokesman Andrew Wyatt telling People that Pulliam won't be there to "proclaim guilt or innocence," but simply "to finally hear the truth for herself." Wyatt says Cosby's wife on the show, Phylicia Rashad, will also appear in the courtroom at some point, though the New York Daily News says it has been told that a Rashad appearance Monday is "unlikely" because she's working. Reports of Malcolm-Jamal Warner, who played son Theo Huxtable, attending are similarly being bandied about. The New York Times offers an overview of what to expect during the trial—"perhaps America's highest profile celebrity trial since that of OJ Simpson"—including expected lines of evidence, the Cosby legal team's anticipated strategy, and some juror information. CNN says the trial has come down to a "he said-she said" scenario, with one other alleged victim expected to testify against Cosby in addition to Constand. "What Cosby is hoping for is that the jury forgets about the other 48 [alleged victims]," a Fordham criminal law professor notes. Meanwhile, Constand herself is reportedly ready to face intense grilling on the witness stand. "There's no trepidation, no fear," a close friend who's also one of Cosby's alleged victims tells NBC. "She used to play basketball and she prepared for those games like nobody else and that is what she has done here." (Vice calls the trial a "test for America.")