April 26, 2018
by Colleen McGregor
A jury in Norristown, Pennsylvania, has found comedian/actor Bill Cosby guilty of three counts of sexual assault on April 26, 2018. Cosby had been on trial for the crime, in which he was accused of drugging and raping Andrea Constand at his Philadelphia-area home in 2004. Constand, a native of Toronto, was director of operations for Temple University women’s basketball team at the time. Cosby received a bachelor’s degree from Temple in 1971. He was a major donor to Temple and on Temple’s board of trustees for many years until his fall from grace.
According to the Chicago Tribune: “Cosby stared straight ahead as the verdict was read, but moments later lashed out loudly at District Attorney Kevin Steele and called him an ‘a–hole’ after the prosecutor asked that Cosby be immediately jailed because he might flee. Cosby denied he has an airplane and shouted, ‘I’m sick of him!'”
Cosby (who is 80 years old) will remain out on bond until his sentencing. His wife Camille (who’s been married to Cosby since 1964) and their three surviving children were not present in the courtroom when the verdict was read. His legal team will almost certainly appeal the verdict.
In 2005, a year after Cosby raped Constand, she reported the crime to the police. However, Cosby was not arrested at that time. Bruce Castor, who was Montgomery Country’s district attorney in Pennsylvania at the time, declined to bring a case against Cosby. Constand then filed a civil lawsuit against Cosby. The lawsuit was settled out of court, with Constand reportedly getting a $3.4 million settlement. In depositions for the lawsuit that weren’t made public until 2016, Cosby admitted to giving drugs to several women, including Constand, before he had sex with them, but he contended that the sex was always consensual. Although the lawsuit made news in 2005, it barely had an effect on Cosby’s career for many years.
That all changed in 2014, when video footage from a Hannibal Buress stand-up comedy show went viral. During one part of the stand-up show, Buress went on a rant against Cosby by calling Cosby a hypocrite who likes to “rape women.” The viral video opened a floodgate of accusations from more than 60 women who claimed that Cosby raped them after he drugged them without their knowledge or consent. Almost all of the women said that Cosby lured them into these situations by offering to mentor them or help them with their careers.
Almost all of the alleged incidents occurred in the 1960s to 1990s—too many years ago for any of the alleged victims to have Cosby arrested for these alleged crimes, since the statute of limitations had run out. In addition, the women said they were alone with Cosby when these alleged rapes happened, so even if some of the women told other people about these alleged rapes at the time (and many of them did), the accusations were hard to prove. In some cases, the accusers said that they told police, attorneys and/or Cosby colleagues about these alleged crimes, but none of the authorities they confided in wanted to hold Cosby accountable because of his immense power and fame. Some of the accusers now have pending lawsuits against Cosby. He has countersued a few of the accusers, but those countersuits will probably be dropped now that Cosby has been found guilty of sexual assault and is going to prison.
Cosby has maintained his innocence throughout the controversy. His accusers have faced criticism for either not coming forward sooner and, in some cases, continuing to be in contact with Cosby after they were allegedly raped by him. Critics of the accusers have called them “gold diggers,” “liars” and “opportunists.” Meanwhile, after the flood of accusations came to light, NBC and Netflix cancelled projects that they had in the works with Cosby. However, he continued to perform stand-up concerts, even though some of his performances were also cancelled because of the controversy. Many universities and institutions (including Temple) also rescinded any honors that they had bestowed on Cosby.
In 2016, a new district attorney (Kevin Steele) took a look at the Constand/Cosby case and decided to file charges against Cosby before the statute of limitations ran out. He was arrested, and the case went to trial in 2017, but ended in a hung jury.
The 2018 retrial, unlike the 2017 trial, allowed the testimony of five other alleged Cosby victims, including former supermodel Janice Dickinson. The added testimony seems to have made a huge difference in the jury’s verdict. In media interviews done after Cosby’s guilty verdict, many of his accusers said that the #MeToo movement also probably made a difference in the trial’s outcome.
For decades, Cosby was revered as a role model not just for Americans but for many people around the world. In his stand-up comedy routines, books, TV commercials, public appearances and in starring roles on TV series like “The Cosby Show,” he had the image of a friendly, upstanding, fatherly figure with a strong moral code of ethics.
He also broke race barriers in television. Cosby was the first African-American to star in a prime-time TV series when he co-starred with Robert Culp in “I Spy,” which NBC televised from 1965 to 1968. In addition to having a successful career in TV and stand-up comedy (he had five Emmys and nine Grammys), Cosby starred in several movies, including 1974’s “Uptown Saturday Night” and 1978’s “California Suite.” His last movie was 2004’s “Fat Albert,” which was based on Cosby’s popular “Fat Albert” animated TV series.
Now that he is a convicted rapist, Cosby will be a registered sex offender and spend time in prison. This article will be updated after Cosby is sentenced.