VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:
Erin Coleman: A French judicial source says the suspect left a video in his apartment, pledging allegiance to ISIS.
Keith Jones: Our in-depth coverage continues in the Billy Cosby sex assault trial. Today the defense resumed cross-examination of his accuser. They challenged the testimony Andrea Constand previously gave to police. NBC 10’s Enrique Latoison joins us live outside the courthouse in Norristown.
Enrique, thanks for your time. Now we have seen the defense chip away at her story. Do you think Cosby’s team was successful in attacking her credibility?
Keith Jones: Well, this is a strategy that we knew that was going to be used from the beginning. Anytime that she said anything, she said anything slightly different, she said blue the first time and she said yellow today, they were going to attack her on it. She said blue the first time and she said sky blue today, they were going to attack her on it.
The whole strategy was to make a record on the record of everything that she said that’s different and then cross-examine her on it. Make sure you point it out. Make sure the jury hears that and then what you do is you argue that in closing and it will be up to the jury after hearing so many different inconsistencies, some of them being little, some of them being mistaken in the middle and some of them being big inconsistencies. Defense is trying to show a pattern here by showing that she is not telling the truth or that she is not being credible.
Keith Jones: Enrique, Andrea Constand’s mother was the next witness scheduled to testify. What does this say about the prosecution strategy?
Enrique Latoison: Well, the prosecution has a very consistent strategy here. You heard they had the first witness that testified two days ago, Ms. Johnson. She was the first accuser. After that, they bolstered her testimony by bringing on two additional witnesses. Then what they did is they put on Ms. Constand. Now they’re bringing on her mom to back her up and use that to bolster her testimony. Of course the defense is going to say, “It’s her mom. What do you expect her mom to do? Her mom of course is going to back up her daughter.”
But her mom did have some recordings that they’re also using. So this is a very consistent strategy about the prosecution to put on a witness and then to put someone on afterwards to bolster that testimony.
Keith Jones: Let’s talk about court etiquette here or decorum as it’s formally known. Celebrity attorney Gloria Allred who was booted from the courtroom because of something to do with a cell phone. What have you learned about that Enrique?
Enrique Latoison: Oh, well, we’ve all learned that horrible lesson at some point. This is a phone. You know not to have it on you and if you do have it on you, you better make sure it’s on silent. There are judges that will get very upset if you interrupt their courtroom with a ringing cell phone. That is well-known. So you’re supposed to check your cell phone before you go in. If you don’t, you’re going to deal with the consequences and in her case the consequence was being embarrassed in front of a courtroom full of people and being escorted out.
Keith Jones: And Judge O’Neill dealt with that swiftly. Enrique Latoison, thank you so much for your insight.
Enrique Latoison: You’re welcome.
Contact Enrique Latoison
(610) 999-1439