Gloria Allred was escorted out of the courtroom at Bill Cosby’s sexual assault trial Wednesday, according to TMZ.
The 75-year-old lawyer was removed from the courtroom in Norristown, Pa., after her phone kept ringing. (RELATED: Bill Cosby Ordered To Stand Trial In Sexual Assault Case)
Actor and comedian Bill Cosby (C) arrives for the third day of his sexual assault trial at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pennsylvania, U.S., June 7, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
The judge presiding over Cosby’s case reportedly has no tolerance for those kind of disruptions. A spokesperson with the court told the outlet after a person has been taken out of the courtroom they are not permitted back for the entire duration of the trial. After a recess, however, she was allowed to return.
Allred was there representing several of Cosby’s accusers, but not Andrea Constand — a Temple University employee — who has accused the actor of drugging and sexually assaulting her at his home in Philadelphia in 2004.
Constand took the stand on Tuesday and gave an emotional testimony of what she claimed happened the night she went to Cosby’s home to discuss making a career move.
She explained that the actor handed her three pills that he said were herbal in nature to help her relax before he allegedly sexually assaulted her. The pills, she claimed, made it impossible for her to “fight him away.”
“Mr. Cosby … laid me down. … I was laying on my left side and placed some pillow under my neck,” Constand told jurors. “I don’t really remember passing out. I have no recollection until at some point later I was jolted awake … and I felt Mr. Cosby’s hand groping my breasts under my shirt. I also felt his hand inside my vagina moving in and out. And I felt him take my hand and place it on his penis and move it back and forth.”
“I wanted it to stop,” she added. “In my head I was trying to get my hands to move or my legs to move but I was frozen and those messages didn’t get there. And I was very limp. And so I wasn’t able to fight him away.”
Cosby faces three counts of aggravated indecent assault for allegedly drugging and abusing Constand at his home in 2004. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years. The trial is expected to last for two weeks.