Experts testify about drug Cosby gave to his accuser

Associated Press

NORRISTOWN, Pa.

It’s long been one of the most enduring mysteries of Bill Cosby’s sexual-assault case: What drug did he give his chief accuser on the night she says he molested her?

Cosby has insisted he handed 11/2 tablets of the over-the-counter cold and allergy medicine Benadryl to Andrea Constand to help her relax before their sexual encounter at his home outside Philadelphia more than a dozen years ago. Constand testified he gave her three small blue pills that left her incapacitated and unable to resist as he molested her.

A pair of drug experts – one for the prosecution, one for the defense – testified at the TV star’s retrial Thursday that paralysis isn’t known to be a side effect of Benadryl, though its active ingredient can cause drowsiness and muscle weakness, among other side effects.

And Cosby’s expert, Harry Milman, said he doesn’t know of any small blue pill that could have produced the symptoms that Constand described.

The “Cosby Show” star has previously acknowledged under oath he gave quaaludes – a powerful sedative and 1970s-era party drug that’s been banned in the U.S. for more than 35 years – to women he wanted to have sex with, but denied having them by the time he met Constand in the early 2000s.

Dr. Timothy Rohrig, a forensic toxicologist called by prosecutors, testified Thursday that quaaludes can make people sleepy. But he and Milman said the drug came in large white pills – not small and blue.