A 47 year-old crack cocaine user identified GW basketball player Attila Cosby in court as the man she said sexually assaulted her last summer.
The woman testified Wednesday before Judge Neal E. Kravitz in D.C. Superior Court as the prosecution’s seventh witness in a misdemeanor sexual abuse, theft and weapon case against Cosby, who joined the GW basketball team last season.
The woman did not show up for testimony during Cosby’s first D.C. Superior Court trial, in which he faced felony charges last July.
The defense, led by attorneys Billy Martin and Pat Woodward, will cross-examine the witness Thursday.
The woman, an alleged prostitute, said she was “hanging out” and “getting high” early May 15, 2000 when Cosby approached her in his car near the corner of New Jersey and P streets in Northwest D.C. She testified that she smoked about $50 to $60 worth of cocaine in five hours before meeting Cosby.
The witness said she approached Cosby’s car because he said “what’s up.”
“I probably flirted,” she said, adding that the incident up to this point was “not an unusual occurrence.”
“That’s why I’m out there, to be visible,” the woman said.
The complainant said Cosby told her he had some drugs he wanted to sell, but wanted someone to test the substance first. She was apprehensive about getting into the vehicle, she said, but exercised poor judgement because “the (cocaine) addiction took over.”
She recounted driving with Cosby to Guthridge Hall, where she followed him into the building and up to his room. The woman said the two never discussed having sex before they entered Cosby’s room.
Once inside the room, the witness said Cosby gave her no drugs but demanded oral sex and she complied.
“I was afraid not to,” she said. “It was already obvious this man had brought me there on false pretenses.”
The woman said Cosby then demanded intercourse and showed a gun when she refused. The woman testified that she told Cosby she had a bleeding vaginal polyp. She said Cosby threatened to kill her because she could have infected him, and forced her to crawl to the bathroom so he could examine her.
“He was at my back,” the witness said, beginning to cry. “I was bent over (the toilet) and he was behind me trying to see (my vagina).”
The complainant said Cosby then aimed the gun at her forehead from the bathroom doorway and ordered her to masturbate lying on her back, to which she said she complied.
The woman said Cosby put a gun to her head and pulled the trigger twice, but he had earlier removed the bullets from the gun. The woman testified that she thought the gun was a revolver. A police search of Cosby’s room last summer found a gunlock but no gun.
The alleged victim said Cosby left the bathroom and returned with a broom. She said he inserted the broom stick into her vagina for about 30 seconds while still holding a gun.
The complainant said she was unsure how far the broom handle entered her body. U.S. attorneys Tuesday presented DNA evidence found on the tip and three centimeters around the top of a broom shaft recovered from Cosb’y room last summer. The DNA matches samples taken from the complainant, an FBI agent testified Tuesday.
The woman said Cosby covered her head with her jacket and led her out the Guthridge basement. She said Cosby stole $10 in quarters from her coat.
After Cosby escorted the woman out of the building, the woman said, he threatened that he was a police officer and would hurt her if she told anyone about the incident.
The prosecution produced UPD surveillance tapes that show two people entering the main Guthridge door at 5:35 a.m.
In his testimony University Police Inspector Rosario Trimarchi identified Cosby and the complainant as the people in the video. Trimarchi said a printout from the Guthridge GWorld card reader, which students use to access the residence hall, indicated Cosby entered the building at that time.
The tapes also show Cosby leaving through the Guthridge basement door with his accuser just after 6 a.m. Rosario testified that student GWorld cards do not access that exit.
Trimarchi said the GWorld card of GW transportation employee Winfield Gray, who testified to losing his card two to three weeks before the incident, was used in the building at 6:09, 6:10 and 6:12 a.m.
Gray testified that his GWorld card has access to all areas of Guthridge Hall.
The alleged victim said she called 911 from across the street.
The prosecution played a 911 phone call recorded at 6:13 a.m. on May 15, 2000. Cosby’s accuser identified the call she made, after which she said four officers responded to the scene.
Cosby returns to court Thursday.
