The First Witness in the Cosby Trial Says She Woke Up to Being Assaulted

Heidi Thomas is the first of six witnesses taking the stand in the Bill Cosby retrial, on which the famous 80-year-old comedian is accused of three accounts of felony sexual assault.

Thomas, a teacher in Colorado, recalled meeting Cosby in 1984 as a 24-year-old aspiring actress in Reno, Nevada. She'd been invited to Cosby's private home for an audition, she explained to the court and in A&E's special Cosby: The Women Speak.

She explained that after being offered a glass of wine by Cosby she soon blacked out. She only remembers fragments from the next four days, but does remember "waking up in bed," she told the courtroom, and finding Cosby naked beside her, forcing himself into her.

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"I remember feeling sick," she explained, continuing: "How did I get here?"

Defense attorney Kathleen Bliss' strategy has been to attempt to discredit each of the witnesses called to the stand. Gloria Allred, the lawyer representing several of Cosby's accusers, calls the defense's angle "a smear campaign" in Vulture's report.

Cosby stands retrial for drugging and assaulting Andrea Constand in 2004 in his suburban Philadelphia home. Constand will take the stand over the course of the trial, as well as four other accusers of the nearly 60 women who have come out with allegations against the comedian. Last June's court case was declared a mistrial when jurors could not come to a unanimous decision.