Can we talk about Bill Cosby?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Allegations are growing that the man may have drugged and raped as many as fourteen women over the years. NBC was going to hold a sitcom with him in the fall, but with all of these allegations we’re not so sure. I think most of the allegations are beyond the statute of limitations but they keep surfacing.

I never even heard of rape allegations about Bill Cosby, which is kind of shocking to me. I mean, some of these have been out for years. The media didn’t exactly focus on them.

I also don’t really get the statute of limitations when it comes to sexual assault. It takes years to come forwards sometime. To be honest, I guess I don’t entirely understand the statute of limitations for any serious crime. Why should anyone get away scot-free? Now we can never really find out the truth of these allegations.

According to the NYTimes article below Netflix has “postponed” the sitcom. It’s all very sad. Like many others I have always been very fond of Bill Cosby, thinking him a stand-up guy. That 14 separate allegations have come out is disturbing and upsetting to say the least. It makes me sick to think of it.

2

I’m still playing catch up to what’s going on here. There are a lot of accusations, and a lot of years have passed since they happened. Will come back to discuss after I’ve digested them. I have always heard rumors that off the set he could be a bit of a creep though.

3

Sexual assault is pervasive in every strata of society. It is sad and disgusting. I do not have a hard time believing it.

I feel sorry for his wife and five kids.

4

The press should have their feet held to the fire for this one. They dismissed and ignored allegations decades back, and now they’re being brought forward again this time assuming Cosby’s guilt. Frankly, I believe the women, but it’s terrible to try this in the court of public opinion now long after the fact. Several women are now having their stories aired, but aside from that the press coverage is pure speculation and uninformed opinions.

5

Here is an interesting article from 2006. Cos must have some good lawyers, but something of this magnitude was going to explode eventually.

http://www.phillymag.com/articles/dr-huxtable-mr-hyde/

6

I don’t have a hard time believing it either, but it’s still kind of upsetting. I’m still kind of digesting too.

7

These types of allegations have surrounded Cosby off an on for years. Personally I think he’s a punk and an bully. I have no trouble believing it.

8

Yeah, that’s the thing, though. I never heard them before. It hasn’t exactly been shouted from the rooftops. I agree with TriPolar; the press seriously fell down on this one.

9

Given his enormous wealth, I have trouble believing he’d have settled a claim out of court if there wasn’t something he wanted covered up. Were I innocent and with his means and semi-retired I’d much rather let her go to court and be proven a liar. I don’t know if he’s guilty, but I doubt he’s wholly innocent.

Though that said I don’t think Janice Dickinson has done his other accusers any favors by coming forward. I’d have to see video footage and a sworn affidavit from Mr. Rogers before I’d believe anything that psychotic publicity whore and coke hound said. If she’s lying for the publicity I just hope she doesn’t hurt the chances of anybody telling the truth.

10

I was aware of rumors that Cosby has cheated on his wife on many occasions. But the rumors (which appear almost certainly true) that he was drugging and raping women was news to me.

11

I wasn’t aware of either till all this shit hit the fan. It’s almost impossible to believe, but it sure looks legitimate. One of the funniest and most trusted father figures in TV history. Not to mention the Jello commercials, his stand up comedy and records. I can’t even look at his picture now and am not devoting too much time in reading the articles either; it’s that sickening.

12

I’m like you, Aanamika - never heard this before, feel sick about it.

13

Why did none of the women, AFAIK, file criminal charges? Do we have records of their going to the police to file contemporaneous complaints? I’m more willing to believe these allegations if it turns out that multiple women have gone to the authorities over the years and were not in contact with each other before filing their complaints or telling authorities their stories.

As to why we have statutes of limitation, it goes right to the heart of your observation at the end,Anaamika, “Now we can never really find out the truth of these allegations.” After so long a period of time, memories and other evidence fades, and becomes less trustworthy. Alibi witnesses become impossible to find, other exculpatory evidence e.g., receipts, phone records, etc… gets lost. The truth becomes impossible to discern sufficiently to warrant locking someone up in a cage for any lesser crime than murder (and I am of the opinion that there should be a SOL for murder as well—see threads at the Dope on current prosecutions of elderly alleged Nazi war criminals.)

14

Considering the time period, I don’t think this tells us much. From what I’ve read, reporting a rape in the 70s and 80s was nearly as much of a nightmare as the rape itself.

15

If you don’t mind me asking (you too TriPolar), how old are you?

16

I’m 11 days short of 39. Old enough to have heard about this!

17

Just shy of 60.

18

Speaking just to this point …

The statute of limitations is a recognition that the outcome of the legal system is based on fallible human testimony. And on perishable evidence.

The quality of both those things deteriorates over time. And after enough time passes, the quality is so low that the outcome of any trial would be little more valid than spinning a wheel of fortune.

e.g. I’m nobody famous. Say tomorrow I get a court summons saying somebody is alleging that I date-raped them in college back in 1978. Or that I was the guy who stuck up their liquor store on October 27th 2001.

So now we’re going to have a criminal trial where I’m the guest of honor. How likely is it that reliable witnesses will produce reliable testimony? Even if they fail to convict me, I still get dragged through the system, need to pay for my defense, have my reputation trashed, etc. And the taxpayers gets to pay for the court, the prosecutors, the detectives, etc. Lots of resources are consumed all around. To what good end?

In many cases even proving that something happened to the complainant on that particular day would be difficult, much less that the specific person now on trial was the one who did it.

There comes a point where the probable benefit to society is less than the probable cost. Remembering that one of the guiding tenets of our justice system is that it’s better to let the guilty go free than to imprison the innocent.
As you yourself say: “Now we can never really find out the truth of these allegations”. But the reason we can’t isn’t the lack of a trial now; it’s the passage of time. A trial now might create a lot of testimony, but the testimony’s connection to the actual truth of an incident 20 years ago would be slim at best.

The saying “Justice delayed is justice denied” applies both ways. Neither victims nor defendants get a good result years later.

Turning more towards the specifics of this case, it’d be a damn shame if indeed there were crimes that weren’t prosecuted when fresh due to celebrity immunity. Immunity, also spelled impunity, is one of the most corrosive cancers in a legal system or in a society.

OTOH, if the reason they weren’t prosecuted when the crime was fresh was that the injured party wanted to ignore the whole thing, well they don’t get a do-over umpteen years later. And they knew, or should have known, that back then when the allegations were fresh.

19

Thank you for the thorough response, LSLGuy. All of that totally makes sense, of course.

20

Weird, I’m only 7 years older and I remember it coming up several times. I can’t find a cite right now, but I recall several women actresses accusing Cosby of impropriety in relation to his 80s shows.