What Bill Cosby’s Accusers Have to Endure on the Stand

After each of the first few days of Bill Cosby’s depressing criminal trial for the alleged rape of Andrea Constand, I have dragged myself back to my extended-stay hotel, in East Norriton, Pennsylvania, and the same thought has intruded as soon as I walk into my room: If I ever were to find myself testifying against a person who had sexually assaulted me, I would be a terrible witness. I doubt that I could stay as calm under cross-examination as Constand has been, wearing pale blue and white, her hair in a halo of tight brown curls that extended her six-foot frame. If a team of lawyers were to deploy the same strategies against me that they have against Constand and Kelly Johnson—who both say that Cosby drugged them and then used them like warm corpses while they couldn’t speak or move—I suspect that the jury would have some issues. I have been aware of the difficulties in sexual-assault adjudication for some time, but, until this week, I did not really understand that I, myself, someone I trust implicitly, would in all likelihood appear rather untrustworthy on the stand.