Bill Cosby’s Defense Expert’s Only Credential Is a Driver’s License
By Emily Saul
Two experts were expected to face off in Bill Cosby‘s sex assault retrial Thursday — but instead the defense produced a wannabe author better versed in Viagra and cancer than drug-facilitated molestation. Dr. Harry A. Milman was allowed to testify as an expert in toxicology and pharmacology by judge Steven O’Neill following a painful voir dire by prosecutor Stewart Ryan, during which Milman was forced to repeatedly admit his lack of credentialing. When asked if he held any licenses, the doctor croaked: “I hold a driver’s license.” Cosby, 80, faces three charges of aggravated indecent assault for allegedly drugging and sexually assaulting former Temple University administrator Andrea Constand in his suburban Philadelphia home in January 2004. Cosby maintains he offered Constand Benadryl to help her “relax.” As Ryan questioned Milman scathingly about his expertise, he managed to hawk two fiction books he’s written — a political thriller and a science fiction thriller — in which the main character is a forensic toxicologist. “Maybe you’d like to pass them out to the jury?” he asked hopefully. At one point during questioning, the stunned prosecutor turned to look at his own expert, forensic toxicologist Dr. Timonthy Rohrig, who sat in the well listening to Milman’s testimony. In another embarrassing turn, the only three papers Milman has published unrelated to cancer — his main field of study — are about Viagra. One of the publications listed on his CV, Ryan pointed out, was a letter to the editor. Of the Viagra-focused works, Milman said only one was related to drug-facilitated sexual assault. That paper focused on an accused rapist who blamed an overdose of the erectile dysfunction medication for his actions. “An individual raped his girlfriend’s daughter, and, um, his defense was that he took an overdose of Viagra, and Viagra made him do it, if you will,” Milman testified. While Milman told jurors that the effects of Benadryl run contrary to Constand’s version of the alleged sex assault, Rohrig said that Cosby could have effectively used Benedryl to incapacitate his accuser. The comedian listened intently, leaning forward and raising his eyebrows as Rohrig said that the over-the-counter drug could cause muscle weakness, clumsiness and “significant sedation”– especially if taken on an empty stomach or with alcohol Constand, 45, testified that her mentor offered her three round, blue pills, which she thought were herbal. She said she’d had a sip of wine at Cosby’s insistence, and that she’d yet to have dinner when she accepted the pills. A blue form of the antihistamine was sold through 2010 or 2011, Rohrig said – -though he corrected himself when he was presented on the stand Thursday with a box of blue Benadryl by defense attorney Kathleen Bliss, who said the blue pills had been purchased last week. During her two days on the stand earlier in the trial, Constand testified her mouth felt “cottony” and her legs became “rubbery” soon after ingesting the pills. Cosby, then 67, says he offered Constand 1.5 tabs of Benadryl, also known as diphenhydramine, to help her “relax.” “[Constand] describes feeling sleeping and an onset of symptoms that are consistent with the ingestion of diphenhydramine: the sleepiness, the dry, cottony mouth,” Rohrig told jurors. “All these symptoms that she described are consistent with the ingestion of diphenhydramine.” Rohrig testified that the effects described by Constand could also be attributed to a number of other blue prescription drugs, including Valium, certain antidepressants and Quaaludes. “Any of these things that she says happened would not have happened within 10 to 15 minutes, as she said,” Milman told jurors during his testimony, saying the effects she recounted would have taken nearly three hours to set in. Prosecutors have repeatedly insinuated that Cosby gave Constand Quaaludes, not Benadryl. Jurors Wednesday heard Cosby, in a 2005 deposition, admit that he’d procured seven prescriptions for Quaaludes from a doctor in the 1970s, and he’d used the party drugs, nicknamed disco biscuits, to have sex with women. In that same deposition, Cosby claimed he’d run out of the powerful sedative in 2002. No Quaaludes were found by police during a search of his Cheltenham, Pa., home, where the alleged assault occurred. Both Rohrig and Milman testified that Quaaludes were “large white” pills. “It never came in blue,” Milman said of the drug. Rohrig admitted under questioning by defense attorney Kathleen Bliss that paralysis, which Constand claimed to also experience during the alleged sex attack, was not a side effect of Benadryl. Milman agreed, saying that paralysis was not a listed side effect of Benadryl. Rohrig also testified that studies showed Quaaludes, also known as Methqualome, didn’t often leave users feeling foggy the next morning. Benadryl, he said, could result in a hangover. Constand testified she awoke on Cosby’s couch, hours later, feeling groggy and confused. The entertainer’s June 2017 trial ended when jurors were unable to return a verdict following nearly 60 hours of deliberation.
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