Bill Cosby sex abuse scandal

[Eddie Teach]

Remember, most of these happened 20 or 30 years ago.

[Caliga]

Is that Weird Al, second row, third from left?

Yes. 

Hm, maybe that explains why he's living with a hernia.

[Barrister]

Damn...now that's a cover with impact.

http://nymag.com/thecut/2015/07/bill-cosbys-accusers-speak-out.html

The link doesn't seem to work.

Apparently Nymag is subject to a DDOS attack, apparently because of this cover.

[Caliga]

DAMN YOU COZ

[garbon]

Damn...now that's a cover with impact.

http://nymag.com/thecut/2015/07/bill-cosbys-accusers-speak-out.html

The link doesn't seem to work.

Apparently Nymag is subject to a DDOS attack, apparently because of this cover.

The person who claimed responsibility for the attack said it wasn't because of the cover or story.

[jimmy olsen]

He's been charged. So fucked up

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/bill-cosby-scandal/bill-cosby-criminally-charged-2004-sex-assault-case-freed-1m-n487876

Bill Cosby Criminally Charged in 2004 Sex-Assault Case, Freed on $1M Bail

by Erik Ortiz and Tom Winter

Embattled comedian Bill Cosby was free on bail Wednesday on a felony sexual assault charge — facing the first criminal charge against him after a series of rape accusations began mounting last year.

Cosby appeared in a suburban Philadelphia courtroom and was ordered to surrender his passport after posting 10 percent in cash of a $1 million bond.

Earlier, the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office announced it had filed an aggravated indecent assault charge against Cosby stemming from an alleged 2004 incident involving an ex-Temple University employee.

The powerful entertainer arrived at magistrate court wearing a hooded gray sweater and holding a cane. He stumbled slightly after exiting an SUV and had to be held up by two people. He made no comment as he entered and later exited the building.

A preliminary hearing was set for Jan. 14.

"Upon examination of all of the evidence, today we are able to seek justice on behalf of Mr. Cosby's victim," Montgomery County District Attorney-elect Kevin Steele said at an initial news conference announcing the charge.

If found guilty on the sexual assault charge, a second-degree felony, the once-beloved TV father figure faces up to 10 years in prison and would have to register as a sex offender.


Andrea Constand, the former Temple University employee, told police Cosby drugged and violated her at his home in Cheltenham Township, near Philadelphia, in January 2004. She was identified in the affidavit of probable cause against Cosby.

Constand, 42, was not specifically named as the victim during the news conference, but Steele said that the woman "has indicated that she is willing to cooperate with us going forward."

The 78-year-old "Cosby Show" star previously said under oath that he had consensual sexual contact with Constand. But a former district attorney declined to charge Cosby in 2005.

The following year, Constand settled a civil lawsuit against Cosby on confidential terms.

Montgomery County prosecutors had until a January 2016 deadline to file criminal charges against Cosby because of the 12-year statute of limitations for felony sex assault.

More women came forward last year to claim the married comedian drugged and raped them or touched them inappropriately in past decades. The over 40 accusers have included aspiring actresses and supermodels Beverly Johnson and Janice Dickinson.

A lawyer for Dickinson said news of Cosby's arrest was "a highly significant chapter in his accusers' long journey toward justice."

"Though he is a very wealthy and famous celebrity, Mr. Cosby should be subject to the same criminal and civil laws as everyone else," said Dickinson's attorney, Lisa Bloom, who is also a legal analyst for NBC News.

Cosby has not previously been charged with a crime. His lawyer has called the allegations "ridiculous" and said it's "completely illogical" that no one would have made reports to police.

Cosby's attorneys on Wednesday called the criminal charge baseless.

"The charge by the Montgomery County District Attorney's office came as no surprise, filed 12 years after the alleged incident and coming on the heels of a hotly contested election for this county's DA during which this case was made the focal point," Cosby's attorneys said.

"Make no mistake, we intend to mount a vigorous defense against this unjustified charge and we expect that Mr. Cosby will be exonerated by a court of law," the attorneys said.

Steele recently won an election against Bruce Castor, the ex-prosecutor who declined in 2005 to charge Cosby, and the case became an issue in the campaign, The Associated Press reported.

Steele said Cosby knew the victim when she was the coach of Temple University's women's basketball team. She considered him "her mentor and her friend," Steele added.

But after looking at new evidence presented earlier this summer, Cosby had twice made unwanted sexual advances toward the woman, according to prosecutors.

Steele said during one incident, Cosby urged her to "take pills that he provided to her" and to drink wine. The effect "made her unable to move or reject his advances," he added.

A transcript of Cosby's deposition in the Constand case, first reported by The New York Times in July, revealed that the comedian acknowledged he had reached into her pants and fondled her.

"I don't hear her say anything. And I don't feel her say anything. And so I continue and I go into the area that is somewhere between permission and rejection. I am not stopped," he said, according to the transcript.

He claims she had groped her in return, but she ultimately rejected him when he tried to have continued sexual contact.

"The victim did not consent to any of these acts and reported that she was unable to move or speak and felt 'frozen' and 'paralyzed,'" the district attorney's office said.

In the deposition, Cosby says he gave Constand three half-pills of the cold and allergy medicine Benadryl.

Steele said Wednesday that he gave the victim "three blue pills," but could not say whether they were Quaaludes, as investigators have previously noted. Only Cosby can truly know what they were, he added.

The prosecutor acknowledged that his office acted now because time was running out to charge Cosby in the case.

"Reopening this case was our duty as law enforcement officers with a sworn obligation to uphold our Constitution and to uphold the law," Steele said.

Constand, who now works as a massage therapist in her native Canada, is "gratified" with the response she was receiving Wednesday, her attorney told NBC News.

"She is receiving numerous communications from women with heart-wrenching accounts of their own experiences," Dolores Troiani said. "Naturally it is troubling that it took until the 11th hour for this day to arrive. She is hopeful that her patience has encouraged other victims to come forward."

The charges add to the towering list of legal problems facing the actor, including defamation and sex-abuse lawsuits filed in Boston, Los Angeles and Pennsylvania. But as for criminal chargers, many of the alleged assaults date back decades, and the statute of limitations has expired in nearly every case.

Cosby's lawyers this month said they will fight an attempt to require his wife, Camille, to give a sworn deposition in a defamation lawsuit filed by seven women who have accused him of sexually assaulting them decades ago.

In December, Cosby filed a countersuit against those seven accusers, accusing them of defamation and claiming they purposefully derailed an upcoming television opportunity.

[Martinus]

He's been charged. So fucked up

Are you on his side in this? Because the choice of words and smileys seems to imply that. 

[jimmy olsen]

He's been charged. So fucked up

Are you on his side in this? Because the choice of words and smileys seems to imply that. 

No, I worded that poorly, I'm not on his side. I  mean the whole situation and what he's done is fucked up.

[11B4V]

Apparently he won a defamation suit

[Maladict]

Good riddance.

US comedian Bill Cosby has been found guilty of three counts of sexual assault, each of which carries a potential 10 years in prison.

[citizen k]

(CNN)After the guilty verdict was announced Thursday against Bill Cosby, the TV icon shouted at the prosecutor in the courtroom.

The 80-year-old comedian's outburst, which happened after the jury was dismissed, came in response to Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, District Attorney Kevin Steele's argument that Cosby's $1 million bail should be revoked, because, Steele said, Cosby might flee anywhere in the world.

Steele said Cosby had a private plane and that no dollar amount would be able to ensure his appearance.Cosby stood up at one point and yelled at Steele: "He doesn't have a private plane, you asshole."

Judge Steven O'Neill did not revoke the bail, and cited Cosby's age and his appearance at every hearing for the past 2½ years as reasons. "I'm not simply going to lock him up right now," O'Neill said.

"You are making a very big deal of something where there is a very high bail and he has appeared at every appearance," O'Neill told Steele.The judge said Cosby should not leave his Pennsylvania home or the state. O'Neill also ordered that arrangements be made for a GPS tracking device for Cosby.Cosby faces up to 10 years in prison on each count, but would likely serve them concurrently. A sentencing hearing has not yet been scheduled.

CNN's Jean Casarez, Aaron Cooper and Eric Levenson contributed to this report.

[merithyn]

Women everywhere need to learn to say no and leave. Not just say no & then suffer in silence.

Umm, most of the allegations are that he drugged them.  So "saying no and leaving" wasn't much of an option.

At the current rythm this is going, 50% of women alive today will have been raped in their lifetime.

Rape is rape but at some point you gotta ask did all the man doing the raping realized they were raping someone?

What the actual fuck...



You going to blame houses for being too nice next?

[Barrister]

Bill Cosby's conviction overturned.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/bill-cosby-overturned-1.6086119

[Valmy]

Bill Cosby's conviction overturned.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/bill-cosby-overturned-1.6086119

The court said Wednesday that it found an agreement with a previous prosecutor prevented him from being charged in the case.

So, not exactly exoneration. He still did it.

He has vowed to serve his full 10-year sentence rather than acknowledge any remorse over the 2004 encounter.

Yeah. So nothing changes I guess.

[The Minsky Moment]

Bill Cosby's conviction overturned.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/bill-cosby-overturned-1.6086119

The court said Wednesday that it found an agreement with a previous prosecutor prevented him from being charged in the case.

That reporting is not really accurate.  It makes it seems like Cosby entered into a plea agreement. He didn't.

In fact, there was NO AGREEMENT OF ANY KIND.  The prior prosecutor just gave a press release saying he wouldn't prosecute and fobbed off the victim by saying his goal wwas to help her civil suit.
The Court's opinion doesn't make a ton of sense. There is an assumption that the non-proc press release meant that Cosby could not invoke the 5th amendment right against self-incrimination.  There is no legal analysis or citation of law for that.  It's just wrong.  He absolutely could have invoked the 5th.  The plaintiff might have contested it but he could have invoked no question. And more likely than not it would have been upheld on these facts.

What happened is Cosby's and his lawyers made a calculation that it was worth running the risk waiving 5th amendment rights in the civil depo given the DA's press release.