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Re: 60 Women Accused Bill Cosby of Assault. Only ONE Got a Conviction.
Over 60 Women Accused Bill Cosby of Assault. Only One Got a Conviction.
The Case Against Cosby - Andrea Constands' Story.
BBC News 8 JAN 2023
WARNING: This article contains details of abuse and may be upsetting to those who have experienced sexual violence or know someone who has.
Andrea Constand was a Canadian basketball star in the 1990s. She attended the University of Arizona on a basketball scholarship and later played professionally in Europe. In 2001, she was hired as the director of operations for the prestigious women's basketball team at Temple University in Philadelphia. That's where she met Bill Cosby.
Cosby was Temple's most famous trustee. He became Constand's friend and mentor, and offered to help her pursue a career in sports broadcasting. In January 2004, Cosby invited Constand to his home to discuss her future.
It was during that visit that Constand alleges Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted her. The next morning, she left his home a completely different person.
Constand's story and her pursuit for justice are featured in the documentary The Case Against Cosby.
'Give Me His Phone Number Right Now'
After the events at Cosby's home, Constand's family noticed drastic changes in her personality. Once an outgoing, social and happy person, Constand became withdrawn — always quiet and rarely smiling.
According to Constand, her secret consumed her and she feared others would be harmed if she kept it to herself. Eventually, she broke down in tears and told her mother, Gianna, everything. "[My mother] said, 'Andrea, give me his phone number right now,'" Constand said in the documentary.
Together, they called Cosby to confront him.
After Andrea Constand told her mother everything, they both got on the phone while her mother confronted Cosby.
"I wanted justice from the beginning — criminal justice," Constand said. "I wanted Bill Cosby in jail for what he did to me."
But the Montgomery County district attorney at the time, Bruce Castor, decided not to charge Cosby, so Constand instead sued her former mentor. And importantly, Castor allegedly struck a deal agreeing never to prosecute Cosby for the crimes if he sat for a deposition in the civil case.
'I thought I was the only one' | The Case Against Cosby
When sitting for a deposition in Andrea Constand's civil case, Cosby admitted to drugging women to have sex with them.
In that deposition, Cosby admitted to drugging women to have sex with them.
"I thought I was the only one," Constand said. "But then I heard those words come out of his mouth — that he used Quaaludes to drug women to have sex with them."
After Cosby's deposition, the case was settled out of court. The documents were sealed from public view and Constand signed a non-disclosure agreement. "I went in there with a secret and I came out with an even bigger secret: that I wasn't alone," she said. "And I carried that secret with me for 10 more years."
The Public Hears Every Detail
At a show in Philadelphia years later, comedian Hannibal Buress referred to allegations that Cosby raped women. A clip of that performance went viral, prompting fresh accusations, news headlines and interest from police.
Many more women came forward; more lawsuits were filed against Cosby. But due to the statute of limitations, there's a window of time after an assault when you can lay criminal charges, and his accusers were too late.
Then in 2015, The Associated Press applied for access to Cosby's sealed deposition from Constand's civil case. The judge said as a public figure who cast himself as a moral authority, Cosby didn't have the right to withhold the information. The documents were unsealed.
In July, AP released excerpts from the deposition's full transcript. In them, Cosby admitted to grooming young women, playing mentor to them, and using drugs to have sex with them. Thirty-five of his accusers appeared on the cover of New York magazine that month.
Ultimately, more than 60 women came forward with similar accusations against the comedian.
Standing up to Cosby and standing up for women: Andrea Constand reads from her book, The Moment
The Beginning of a Tidal Wave
With less than a month before time would run out on her case, Constand's was the only alleged assault not barred at the time by the statute of limitations. In 2015, Cosby was arrested for drugging and sexually assaulting Constand, and 13 other women who alleged similar experiences were mentioned in the court papers.
Facing a breach-of-contract lawsuit and accusations of racism, Constand testified, all while receiving threats from Cosby's supporters. Her lawyers argued that evidence provided by other victims showed a clear pattern of criminal behaviour.
In 2018, more than 14 years after Constand's alleged assault, Cosby was found guilty on all charges, designated a "sexually violent predator," and sentenced to three to 10 years in prison.
But in the summer of 2021, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned Cosby's conviction, and he was released from prison.
Castor's alleged immunity deal with Cosby in 2005 has been under scrutiny, and the reversal has shone a light on the barriers women continue to face when trying to hold abusers accountable.
But the story is not over. In October 2021, Lili Bernard, who played Mrs. Minifield on The Cosby Show in the early '90s, filed a lawsuit over an alleged encounter in Atlantic City in 1990. In June, 2022, Judy Huth was awarded $500,000 US after jurors determined Cosby was liable for the sexual abuse she experienced in 1975, when she was just 16. In December 2022, five women filed a fresh lawsuit against Cosby for sexual assault, as well as three production companies for being complicit in his actions.
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