No winners in sordid Cosby saga

The reaction to criminal charges filed against Bill Cosby last week ranged from incredulity among longtime fans to jubilation from the 50-some women allegedly assaulted by Cosby during his career as an entertainer. “Shocked, happy, thrilled” were among th

The criminal charges filed Wednesday in Montgomery County came in the final days of a 12-year window under Pennsylvania law to charge a suspect in a sexual assault case. Montgomery County District Attorney-elect Kevin Steele said his office reopened an investigation last July into the alleged sexual assault in Cheltenham Township that took place between mid-January and mid-February 2004.

The victim in the case, Andrea Constand, was one of the first alleged victims back in 2005 to accuse the entertainer of assault, and it was her civil suit against Cosby and the release of depositions in that case that started women going public with similar accounts.

Cosby, 78, was arraigned on three counts of felony aggravated indecent assault and released on $100,000 bail, 10 percent of the $1 million bail set.

The alleged assault took place in Cosby’s Cheltenham home after the comedian had established a relationship over several months with Constand through her position at Temple University, according to court documents.

According to the affidavit, Constand said she believed she shared a “sincere friendship” with Cosby and even considered him a mentor. She told investigators that she had twice rebuffed sexual advances from Cosby, which she said embarrassed her.

“She never thought he would hit on her, especially since Cosby is much older than her father,” the affidavit reads.

Constand’s account is echoed by women across the country, who describe the entertainer as a mentor, friend, and role model offering them help with coaching and connections in their careers. Most were young models and actresses at the time of the alleged assaults.

Cosby has denied the allegations.

The filing of criminal charges is being hailed as a victory for all assault victims who thought that a man of Cosby’s stature and influence would never see the inside of a courtroom. As Cosby gets his day in court, so do the thousands of women through decades whose allegations against men in power have gone unheeded. No one is so foolish as to believe that powerful men are not also victimized by people who see a payday or some satisfaction in accusing them of unwanted advances. But those incidents pale in number to the many silent victims of sexual abuse who fail to come forward because they are convinced no one will believe them.

Cosby’s alleged victims were in that category for a long time, and Constand’s public stand with a civil suit and pursuit of criminal charges changed that. The filing of charges last week moved that progress a step further. But in that victory is tragedy as well — the tragedy that decades have passed with women bringing forth accusations that never went further than their stories, that a man whose legacy as an entertainment icon is forever tainted and that so many lives have been changed, if not ruined in this saga.

There are no winners here, just victims having a chance to have their stories heard.