Vindication for the survivors

G

asps and shrieks filled the Pennsylvania courthouse after the jury verdict was announced finding Bill Cosby guilty on all counts of drugging and molesting a young woman 14 years ago. Two women who said they too were victimized by the iconic comic burst into tears and had to be led from the courtroom. There were angry and profane words from the 80-year-old defendant.

Nothing, though, was more dramatic than the simple words of apology from the prosecutor to the victim that charges had not been brought when she first stepped forward a decade ago.

Why did it take so long to bring to justice a man who has been accused by more than 50 women of sexual crimes spanning five decades? Yes, it is good that justice has been, finally, delivered. But think of the women who have been hurt along the way. Hopefully, the case will serve as a prod – to police and prosecutors to overcome an inherent reluctance to pursue often-difficult sexual assault cases; to sexual predators to realize they will be held to account for their crimes; and, above all, to women who have been victimized, who may have more reason to hope now that they will be believed.

Cosby, convicted Thursday on three felony counts for the 2004 sexual assault of Temple University employee Andrea Constand, faces up to 10 years in prison on each count. State sentencing guidelines are likely to result in a shorter sentence, but he faces the prospect of spending the rest of his life in prison (unless his appeal is successful). It is a sad end to his once-glorious career as a barrier-breaking actor, comedian, philanthropist and – through his beloved character Cliff Huxtable – national role model.

Any sympathy, though, for Cosby would be misplaced. Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele, who resurrected the criminal case after his predecessor opted against bringing charges and who forged ahead with a retrial after Cosby’s first trial ended with a deadlocked jury, described Cosby as a “man who had evaded this moment for far too long.”

He detailed how Cosby “used his celebrity, he used his wealth, he used his network of supporters”to prey on young women – many of whom looked up to him as a friend and mentor – and then to conceal his horrible crimes.

Rather than focusing on the perpetrator, we would say this is a moment to pay tribute to the sexual assault survivors who had the courage to speak out and the persistence to stand by their stories during long years of official neglect, minimization and disbelief.