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AN INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SERVING THE GW COMMUNITY SINCE 1904

The GW Hatchet

Serving the GW Community since 1904

The GW Hatchet

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Officials name senior vice president, chief of staff
By Fiona Riley, Assistant News Editor • March 26, 2024

WEB EXCLUSIVE: Cosby testifies that he made a mistake

Personal weakness caused Attila Cosby to pick up a crack cocaine user last summer before driving her back to his residence hall room, the GW basketball player testified Thursday in D.C. Superior Court.

“I was curious, weak or whatever,” Cosby said in his defense, adding that his girlfriend Lisa Couser was nine months pregnant when he picked up a 47-year-old alleged prostitute at New Jersey and P streets. He faces nine misdemeanor charges including sexual assault and a weapon violation for the May 15 incident.

Cosby said the night of the incident he drove Couser’s 1994 Toyota Corolla to Club Platinum, where his friend was throwing a party. Cosby said he wanted to go to Couser’s house when he left but ran into traffic.

After taking a detour, Cosby said he ended up near New Jersey and P streets, where he said the complainant flagged him down.

“I made a mistake,” Cosby said. “She opened the door and got in. I was just weak-minded.”

On the way to GW’s campus, Cosby said the woman repeatedly said she would give him oral sex in exchange for $10 or $15 and crack cocaine. He said after he parked outside Guthridge Hall, the woman followed him up the steps.

Once the two entered the room, Cosby said she unzipped his pants and began to perform oral sex on him. When he went to get a condom, Cosby said he noticed blood in the seat of the complainant’s pants.

“I asked, ‘what’s wrong with you? Do you want to go and wipe your pants off?'” Cosby said in testimony. “I was disgusted. I had never seen nothing like that.”

Cosby said he used a broomstick to point at bloody facial tissues on the floor after the complainant came back from using the bathroom. He said he told the woman to pick the paper scraps up.

After the woman cleaned up, Cosby said he led her out of the building. University Police surveillance tapes show Cosby leaving through the back door of Guthridge Hall covering the woman’s face.

The court recessed before Cosby discussed a roll of quarters in his room that the complainant alleged he had stolen from her. Both Cosby and his godmother Geneva Couser said his godmother gave him the money for laundry.

In other testimony, Metropolitan Police Department officer Joe Anderson, who testified Monday that evidence from Cosby’s Guthridge Hall room was missing, said the evidence turned up on Tuesday. Anderson said the sex kit was found in another officer’s box in a walk-in refrigerator in a place he recalled checking at least twice before.

Defense attorneys also called MPD detective Randy Brooks to refute prosecution allegations that Geneva Couser, a 27-year MPD veteran, received information improperly from MPD employees.

Cosby, who transferred to GW from University of New Mexico in January 2000, said he left New Mexico because of his girlfriend’s pregnancy. Before attending New Mexico, he attended University of Pittsburgh, where he left after two years. He now lives in an apartment with his mother in Southeast D.C.

The court will recess until Tuesday, when defense attorney Billy Martin will continue to examine Cosby on the stand.

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