GW basketball player Attila Cosby’s godmother testified in his defense Tuesday that she did not act improperly by looking through records of alleged sexual assault victims obtained from Metropolitan Police. Cosby is scheduled to testify when the case continues Thursday.
Geneva Couser, Attila Cosby’s godmother and a 27-year MPD veteran, said she reviewed MPD index cards describing reported sexual assaults and alleged attackers but did not remember receiving any details from Detective Randy Brooks and Lieutenant Lorraine Kittrell last May other than that Cosby had a pending arrest warrant.
“I don’t feel I did anything wrong,” Couser said. “I would never do anything to jeopardize 27 years.”
The three-by-five cards that document all reported sex crimes in the District and include the name of a sexual assault complainant and an accused attacker are kept in the department’s sex crimes unit – a department in which Couser worked for 17 years.
Prosecutors have alleged that Couser obtained information from MPD colleagues and informed Cosby.
Cross-examination, conducted by U.S. attorney Sharon Marcus-Kurn, probed the information Couser received from colleagues. Couser said she could not remember being informed of the contents of Cosby’s arrest warrant before he turned himself into police. The warrant included specific information about Cosby’s accuser and details of evidence gathered by MPD officers.
Couser said Brooks told her to retrieve the alleged victim’s card from two other unrelated incidents the next day. She said she copied two cards from the incidents and gave copies only to Brooks.
After she learned of the warrant, Couser said she drove Cosby to Lieuteniant Lorraine Kittrell’s house because she did not want to upset her daughter Lisa, who was nine months pregnant with Cosby’s child.
Couser said she spoke on the phone with Brooks in Kittrell’s kitchen, while Cosby sat outside.
Couser said she met Cosby when he was in 11th grade and has attended all of his basketball games at GW because his family never gave him support at his games. Cosby used to spend his weekends at her house and had a key to enter his house, she testified, adding that Cosby no longer has a key. She said she does not remember taking the key back from Cosby.
After Cosby spent the weekend at her house in May 2000, Couser said, she gave him a roll of quarters to do his laundry. The prosecution charges that Cosby stole the quarters from his accuser.
Couser also said on the stand that she was not involved in paying Cosby’s legal fees.
Asked by defense attorney Billy Martin whether she would lie to protect Cosby, she replied, “not for him and no one else.”
In other testimony, prosecutors briefly re-opened its case to call Officer Alfred F. Holmes, who transported evidence from MPD to the FBI, where it was inspected for DNA evidence.
Defense attorneys also called Detective Anthony Washington, who was called as an expert in the D.C. drug market. Washington testified that the areas around New Jersey and P streets, where Cosby picked up the complainant, is known as an open-air drug market.
The trial continues Thursday morning, when defense attorneys said Cosby will take the stand.