At one time, comedian and actor Bill Cosby was known as Heathcliff Huxtable, America’s Favorite Dad on “The Cosby Show.” Today, Cosby is a sex offender who has been charged with three counts of sexual assault in relation to Andrea Constand, as stated by the New York Times. Constand, a former Temple University employee, accused the entertainer of drugging and raping her in 2004. Over 40 other women have also accused Cosby of the same offenses, but the statute of limitations had run out on those cases. However, Constand’s case just made it, with the 15-year statute not yet expired.
Constand and other women in the Montgomery County Courthouse in Philadelphia celebrated the justice that they were given today.
Cosby may get 30 years in prison
It did not take long for the jury to find Cosby guilty. The jury only needed two days to convict the 80-year old comedian. Each count of rape is punishable by up to a decade. That means that Cosby could be sentenced to 30 years. While Judge Steven T. O’Neill still needs to sentence Cosby and has let him go home until the sentencing, Cosby did not do much to help himself today. When the prosecutor suggested in court that the entertainer should be in jail and was a flight risk, Cosby experienced an angry outburst and cursed at the prosecutor.
The former "Cosby Show" star cannot leave the state of Pennsylvania and will be subjected to a GPS tracking device.
The comedian’s luck has run out
Cosby lucked out in his first trial last summer, the jury deadlocked on his conviction. This resulted in the retrial where five women testified on Constand’s behalf. All of the women accused Cosby of raping and drugging them.
This probably helped to convict Cosby, who admitted to giving women Quaaludes with the intention of having sex with them in 2015. A court document was unsealed and made public at that point with the actor’s confession. However, Cosby always insisted that the sex was consensual.
The fall from grace is irreparable
When news of Bill Cosby’s sexual assault started to come out in 2014, the entertainer seemed to have the support of Hollywood, including stars like Whoopi Goldberg and Jill Scott.
They both questioned why the women waited so long to report Cosby to authorities and suggested that the women were lying. More women recanted similar stories of Cosby seeming interested in helping them further their careers by getting them to his hotel room to read lines with him, only to drug and rape them. As more evidence surfaced, Cosby’s supporters were few and far between. Tamara Green, Beverly Johnson, and Beth Ferrier are some of the victims who accused Cosby of sexual assault, relating to incidents dating back to the 1970’s.
The Cosby verdict is a win for women everywhere who have been victims of sexual assault. In an age where rape cases are often turned back onto the woman, and females often not believed, the Cosby verdict is an example of justice served.
While Cosby’s sentencing date has not yet come to pass, the days of the entertainer being America’s Favorite Dad seem to be over. Bill Cosby can no longer hide behind Jell-O Pudding Pops and onstage jokes, with many people now labeling Cosby as a dangerous sexual predator that needs to be behind bars.
