Bill Cosby has painted many of his accusers as star-struck gold-diggers — aspiring models and actresses trying to shake him down to get ahead in Hollywood. Yet the first woman known to have told police she was drugged and violated by the comedian was a college basketball administrator in Philadelphia who initially asked only for an apology from the man she regarded as her mentor and friend. Andrea Constand — whose 2005 lawsuit produced damning testimony from Cosby that was released by a court this week — stands out among the dozens of women who later accused the comedian of sexual assault, and not just because she helped set off the torrent of allegations that have shattered his nice-guy image as TV’s Dr. Cliff Huxtable.
