DOWNFALL OF AMERICA’S DAD
Comedian and icon Bill Cosby could spend the rest of his life behind bars after being found guilty of drugging and molesting a woman
NORRISTOWN, Pa. — Bill Cosby was convicted Thursday of drugging and molesting a woman in the first big celebrity trial of the # MeToo era, completing the late- in- life downfall of a comedian who broke racial barriers in Hollywood on his way to TV superstardom as America’s Dad.
Cosby, 80, could end up spending his final years in prison after a jury concluded he sexually violated Temple University employee Andrea Constand at his suburban Philadelphia mansion in 2004.
He stared straight ahead as the verdict was read but moments later lashed out loudly at District Attorney Kevin Steele after the prosecutor demanded Cosby be sent immediately to jail. Steele told the judge Cosby has an airplane and might flee.
Cosby angrily denied he has a plane and called Steele an “a-- hole,” shouting, “I’m sick of him!”
Judge Steven O’Neill decided Cosby can remain free on $ 1 million bail while he awaits sentencing but restricted him to Montgomery County, where his home is.
Cosby waved to the crowd outside the courthouse, got into an SUV and left without saying anything. His lawyer Tom Mesereau declared “the fight is not over” and said he will appeal.
Shrieks erupted in the courtroom when the verdict was announced, and some of Cosby’s accusers whimpered and cried. Constand remained stoic, then hugged her lawyer and members of the prosecution team.
The jury of seven men and five women deliberated 14 hours over two days.
The verdict came after a two- week retrial in which prosecutors had more courtroom weapons at their disposal than they did the first time: They put five other women on the stand who testified that Cosby, married for 54 years, drugged and violated them, too.
At Cosby’s first trial, which ended in a deadlocked jury less than a year ago, only one additional accuser was allowed to testify.
After the verdict, the district attorney became teary- eyed as he commended Constand for coming forward, and he apologized to her for a previous DA’s decision in 2005 not to charge Cosby.
“He used his celebrity, he used his wealth, he used his network of supporters to help him conceal his crimes,” Steele said. “Now, we really know today who was really behind that act, who the real Bill Cosby was.”
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.
Constand, 45, told jurors that Cosby knocked her out with three blue pills he called “your friends” and then penetrated her with his fingers as she lay immobilized, unable to resist or say no. Cosby claimed the encounter was consensual said he gave her 1 ½ pills of the cold and allergy medicine Benadryl to help her relax.
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. The onslaught all but destroyed his career and his good- guy image as wisdom- dispensing, sweater- wearing Dr. Cliff Huxtable on “The Cosby Show.”
Cosby’s retrial took place against the backdrop of # 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.
Cosby’s defense team launched a highly aggressive attack on Constand, calling her a “con artist” who framed Cosby to get rich.
Constand sued Cosby after prosecutors initially declined to file charges, settling with him for nearly $ 3.4 million over a decade ago.
Cosby himself had long ago con- firmed sordid revelations about drugs and extramarital sex. In a deposition he gave as part of Constand’s lawsuit, Cosby acknowledged he had obtained quaaludes to give to women he wanted to have sex with.
The entertainer broke racial barriers as the first black actor to star in a network show, “I Spy,” in the 1960s. He created the top- ranked “Cosby Show” two decades later.