PHILADELPHIA — The prosecution’s expert said Andrea Constand could have felt weak and woozy, with blurred vision and a dry mouth, as quickly as 10 to 15 minutes after taking pills that Bill Cosby gave her.
But an expert called by Cosby’s defense team said she couldn’t have felt those symptoms so quickly or severely from the Benadryl that Cosby said he gave her.
The conflicting testimony Thursday came from two toxicologists, one called by each side in Cosby’s sex assault retrial. It will be left to the jurors – who could get the case early next week – to determine which expert to believe, if either.
The full day of expert testimony came after jurors heard from six women, including Constand, who said Cosby drugged them before sexually assaulting them. The jury has also heard Cosby’s own statements admitting that decades ago he obtained Quaaludes to give to women before sex.
But what drug he gave Constand on the night of the alleged assault in 2004 and how it affected her is a central question at his trial.
Timothy Rohrig, a forensic toxicologist who testified for the prosecution, was the final witness called by prosecutors in their bid to prove that Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted Constand in 2004.
“All the symptoms she described, the timing of the onset of the symptoms she described, is consistent with the ingestion” of Benadryl, said Rohrig, who also testified at Cosby’s first trial last June.
Alcohol, Rohrig said, would intensify the effects of Benadryl.
Harry Milman, the toxicologist called by Cosby’s lawyers, testified that Benadryl is one of the safest over-the-counter allergy medications and would not have produced those severe effects.
“If it caused unconsciousness or an inability to move your arms or legs, then it wouldn’t be an over-the-counter drug,” Milman said. “And the symptoms that she described are very severe symptoms, and they all appeared at once.”
Milman said that because Constand said she took only some sips of wine on the night of the alleged assault, it could not have caused her symptoms.
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