Cosby’s appeal alleges racism

PHILADELPHIA — Comedian Bill Cosby, the Hollywood paragon of Black family values, was convicted of sexual assault in 2018 as the #MeToo movement exploded and women worldwide shared personal histories of sexual harassment and abuse.

Now, in the midst of another historic reckoning — this time addressing the treatment of Black people by police and the criminal justice system — the 82-yearold has won the right to an appeal.

He hopes to use the moment to his advantage.

“The false conviction of Bill Cosby is so much bigger than him — it’s about the destruction of ALL Black people and people of color in America,” Cosby spokesman Andrew Wyatt said when the court accepted the appeal late last month.

The appeal issues the court has accepted don’t directly include racial bias, which Cosby’s legal team raised more often on the courthouse steps in Montgomery County than inside the courtroom. His defenders, however, say race permeates the case.

The appeal hinges on two questions:

Did Cosby have an ironclad deal with District Attorney Bruce Castor that Cosby could never be charged after Castor declined to arrest Cosby in 2005?

And, how many other accusers should be allowed to testify before the scales of justice tip against the accused?

Appellate lawyer Jennifer Bonjean, though, believes the #MeToo movement is fading, and that Cosby, if he wins a new trial, might avoid what she called “the mobjustice standards of a hashtag movement.”