Bill Cosby was convicted Thursday of drugging and molesting a woman in the first big celebrity trial of the (hash)MeToo era, completing the spectacular late-life downfall of a comedian who broke racial barriers in Hollywood on his way to TV superstardom as America\u2019s Dad.<\/p>\n
Cosby, 80, could end up spending his final years in prison after a jury concluded he sexually violated Temple University employee at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004. He claimed the encounter was consensual.<\/p>\n
The verdict came after a two-week retrial in which prosecutors put five other women on the stand who testified that Cosby, married for 54 years, drugged and violated them, too. One of those women asked him through her tears, \u201cYou remember, don\u2019t you, Mr. Cosby?\u201d<\/p>\n
The panel of seven men and five women reached a verdict after deliberating 14 hours over two days, vindicating prosecutors\u2019 decision to retry Cosby after his first trial ended with a hung jury less than a year ago.<\/p>\n
Cosby could get up to 10 years in prison on each of the three counts of aggravated indecent assault. He is likely to get less than that under state sentencing guidelines, but given his age, even a modest term could mean he will die behind bars.<\/p>\n
The victim, 45, a former Temple women\u2019s basketball administrator, told jurors that Cosby knocked her out with three blue pills he called \u201cyour friends\u201d and then penetrated her with his fingers as she lay immobilized, unable to resist or say no.<\/p>\n
It was the only criminal case to arise from a barrage of allegations from more than 60 women who said the former TV star drugged and molested them over a span of five decades.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe time for the defendant to escape justice is over,\u201d prosecutor Stewart Ryan said in his closing argument. \u201cIt\u2019s finally time for the defendant to dine on the banquet of his own consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another prosecutor, Kristen Feden, said Cosby was \u2018nothing like the image that he played on TV\u201d as sweater-wearing, wisdom-dispensing father of five Dr Cliff Huxtable on \u2018The Cosby Show.\u2019<\/p>\n
Cosby\u2019s retrial took place against the backdrop of (hash)MeToo, the movement against sexual misconduct that has taken down powerful men in rapid succession, among them Harvey Weinstein, Matt Lauer, Kevin Spacey and Sen. Al Franken.<\/p>\n
The jurors all indicated they were aware of (hash)MeToo but said before the trial they could remain impartial. Cosby\u2019s lawyers slammed (hash)MeToo, calling Cosby its victim and likening it to a witch hunt or a lynching.<\/p>\n
After failing to win a conviction last year, prosecutors had more courtroom weapons at their disposal for the retrial. The other accusers\u2019 testimony helped move the case beyond a he-said, she-said, allowing prosecutors to argue that Cosby was a menace to women long before he met the victim. Only one other accuser was permitted to testify at Cosby\u2019s first trial.<\/p>\n
Cosby\u2019s new defense team, led by Michael Jackson\u2019s lawyer Tom Mesereau, launched a highly aggressive attack on the victim and the other women.<\/p>\n
Their star witness, a longtime Temple employee, testified that the victim once spoke of setting up a prominent person and suing. The victim sued Cosby after prosecutors initially declined to file charges, settling with him for nearly $3.4 million over a decade ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re dealing with a pathological liar,\u201d Mesereau told the jury.<\/p>\n
His colleague on the defense team, Katheen Bliss, derided the other accusers as home-wreckers and suggested they made up their stories in a bid for money and fame. But Cosby himself had long ago confirmed sordid revelations about drugs and extramarital sex.<\/p>\n
In a deposition he gave over a decade ago as part of the victim\u2019s lawsuit, Cosby acknowledged he had obtained quaaludes to give to women he wanted to have sex with, \u201cthe same as a person would say, `Have a drink.\u201d\u2019 The sedative was a popular party drug before the US banned it more than 30 years ago.<\/p>\n
Cosby also acknowledged giving pills to the woman before their sexual encounter. But he identified them as the over-the-counter cold and allergy medicine Benadryl and insisted they were meant to help her relax.<\/p>\n
The entertainer broke racial barriers as the first black actor to star in a network show, \u201cI Spy,\u201d in the 1960s. He created the top-ranked \u201cCosby Show\u201d two decades later. He also found success with his \u201cFat Albert\u201d animated TV show and served as pitchman for Jello-O pudding.<\/p>\n
Later in his career, he attracted controversy for lecturing about social dysfunction in poor black neighborhoods, railing against young people stealing things and wearing baggy pants.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bill Cosby was convicted Thursday of drugging and molesting a woman in the first big celebrity trial of the (hash)MeToo era, completing the spectacular late-life downfall of a comedian who broke racial barriers in Hollywood on his way to TV superstardom as America\u2019s Dad. Cosby, 80, could end up spending his final years in prison […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29321,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29320"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29320\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29322,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29320\/revisions\/29322"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}