# Bill Cosby: Guilty! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 26, 2018, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-cosby-guilty/813174 "2018-04-26T17:53:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2018, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-cosby-guilty/813174/41 "2018-04-27T02:46:32Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > An officer of the court is ostensibly responsible for not covering up an act he knows to be a crime, but if the victim is willing to not press charges in exchange for payment, then who is he or she to say that a crime has been committed?..and so forth. She went to her local (Toronto) police a year after it happened; they referred her to CPD in PA (where Cosby’s home is) & tried to press charges; however > [@Washington Post](#): > > FEBRUARY _(2005)_: Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce Castor announces he will not charge Cosby. He considers the case weak, citing the yearlong delay, Constand’s continued contact with Cosby and the failure of other accusers now coming forward to have ever filed a police complaint. [Article](https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/celebrities/timeline-in-bill-cosbys-sexual-assault-case/2018/04/26/a2c4707a-4984-11e8-8082-105a446d19b8_story.html) It was only then that she filed the civil suit. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2018, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-cosby-guilty/813174/42 "2018-04-27T04:08:21Z")
> [@erysichthon](#): > > I’m looking forward to the SNL “Bill Cosby in prison” sketch, with Eddie Murphy playing Cosby. Not me. There is absolutely nothing funny or satirizable about any of this. Why did he drug and rape women when he could have had all the consensual poon he wanted? Because that’s what he REALLY got off on, that’s why. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2018, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-cosby-guilty/813174/43 "2018-04-27T04:09:11Z")
_“I told you that story so I could tell you this one…”_ ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2018, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-cosby-guilty/813174/44 "2018-04-27T04:43:46Z")
> [@Spiderman](#): > > She went to her local (Toronto) police a year after it happened; they referred her to CPD in PA (where Cosby’s home is) & tried to press charges; however > It was only then that she filed the civil suit. I was referring to Cosby’s legal counsel who arranged settlement the Constand case and has protected him in multiple other accusations despite a clear pattern of behavior emerging. A person accused of a crime deserves a “vigorous” defense in the presumption of innocence, but not to the point of repeatedly and knowingly suppressing and supporting blatant criminal activities. Andrea Constand, Janice Dickenson, Tamera Green, and Victoria Valentino, among others, have been consistent in their description of Cosby’s behavior and methods. It is problematic that the victims have been reluctant to come forward, often for years, but that is a consequence of vicitims of sexual assault often being dismissed, or even if the assault itself is unquestioned, the [investigation given such low priority](https://www.propublica.org/podcast/an-overdue-examination-of-detroits-forgotten-rape-kits) [as to be essentially pointless](https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/7bmxe4/rape-survivors-are-suing-to-have-their-rape-kits-processed). When victims don’t believe that the legal process will provide justice because it so often fails them even with good evidence, it is not a wonder that the victims of influential predators are reluctant to press charges expediciously. And when an entire system is against pursuit of the truth, it becomes oppressive. Bill Cosby being recognized as the deranged serial predator he is achieves something, but until those who protect him and others are held accountable, he’s just the tip of the iceberg. And again, it isn’t just the women he raped and assaulted who are affected by this; it is generations of children who looked up to him as a role model. His behavior, and unwillingness to accept responsibility for it, it nearly as horrific as the acts themselves. And the same applies to those who would apologize for him in service of their own careers. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2018, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-cosby-guilty/813174/45 "2018-04-27T05:01:14Z")
Eh, President Chump is probably planning to pardon him. (Never mind if he really can or not.) Man, what a downfall. I remember his show in the 1980s and how everyone looked up to him. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2018, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-cosby-guilty/813174/46 "2018-04-27T05:35:17Z")
I’d never want to go to jail, but having Bill Cosby for a cellmate would be kind of cool. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2018, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-cosby-guilty/813174/47 "2018-04-27T05:47:45Z")
I really don’t care that he’s old and blind. What he did was so wrong, it’s important that he is punished to the fullest extent possible. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2018, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-cosby-guilty/813174/48 "2018-04-27T06:43:09Z")
You seeee, Theeeoooooooo-! when. ya put the pill! in the drink! Ya get sent to the clink! Theeeooo. ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2018, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-cosby-guilty/813174/49 "2018-04-27T08:24:55Z")
No Dotard pardon; not a Federal Case. No SNL sketch; Family Guy, Simpsons, or South Park probably. I’m okay with dragging out his sentencing - he has no where to hide - better to crush his hopes - drain his little energy. Nice to see the prosecutor is going to go after him for the cost of the trial for the people. The aiders and abettors; for just this occasion, I wish there was a god of vengeance. Sadly, they’ll just die without remorse. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2018, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-cosby-guilty/813174/50 "2018-04-27T11:09:03Z")
Fine. Maybe the enablers can’t be prosecuted. Any reason they can’t be named and shamed? Cast some aspersions and let them publicly respond, see what they have to say. Maybe it’s time for a, #Ihelped movement. Media had no problem naming the victims and casting aspersions on their motives after all. Or, maybe, ‘ Have you ever worked for Cosby?’, could become a required job interview question. As a broad disqualifier. As in, cast aspersions on EVERYONE that was ever in his employ. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2018, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-cosby-guilty/813174/51 "2018-04-27T11:54:01Z")
> [@E-DUB](#): > > I’d never want to go to jail, but having Bill Cosby for a cellmate would be kind of cool. Until you wake up to him sliding his hand under your blanket. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2018, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-cosby-guilty/813174/52 "2018-04-27T11:56:31Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Until you wake up to him sliding his hand under your blanket. Maybe that’s the appeal. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2018, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-cosby-guilty/813174/53 "2018-04-27T12:02:18Z")
> [@Jim\_B](#): > > Also, the poor man is feeble and blind, and now he will probably die in prison. No one deserves that IMHO. I don’t think anyone deserves to be murdered in prison, but if their natural death happens to occur while they’re serving what would otherwise not be a life sentence, then so be it. If a criminal wants to leave prison alive, then they should confess to their crimes while they’re still young and healthy. The first allegations against Cosby were made public in 2005, when he was about 67; if he had confessed back then, a criminal case could have moved forward very quickly and he probably would have been out of jail by now. People who commit horrible trespasses against others should not get a pass simply because they are old; to do otherwise is to encourage other evildoers to commit their crimes and likewise attempt to conceal them until their deaths. Cosby deserves a prison term for his crimes - a term no different than a younger man would receive - and society needs the deterrent message that such a prison term conveys. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2018, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-cosby-guilty/813174/54 "2018-04-27T13:43:01Z")
I agree but I doubt he’ll see the inside of a prison. I predict a medical ‘episode’ that sees him hospitalized, possibly in a private facility, where his personal high paid Dr can keep him indefinitely on the pretext he’s shouldn’t be moved. If he does get to prison, I predict he’ll immediately have said medical episode with exactly the same result. The state will be more than willing to hand off his medical care, not wanting the scrutiny nor expense, I believe. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2018, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-cosby-guilty/813174/55 "2018-04-27T14:22:10Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > I agree but I doubt he’ll see the inside of a prison. Well, at this point he pretty much doesn’t see the inside of _anything_. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2018, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-cosby-guilty/813174/56 "2018-04-27T14:32:17Z")
I wonder if he’ll participate in the annual prison xmas talent show. ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2018, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-cosby-guilty/813174/57 "2018-04-27T15:27:05Z")
> [@erysichthon](#): > > Yeah, when I posted that, I was pretty sure I’d get a lecture. I’d still watch an SNL sketch and laugh. Justice has been served and I’m in a good mood. > > Eddie Murphy would probably refuse to do it, though. [He refused to do it in 2015](https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2015/10/eddie-murphy-bill-cosby-saturday-night-live), so I doubt he would change his mind now. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2018, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-cosby-guilty/813174/58 "2018-04-27T15:31:02Z")
> [@JackieLikesVariety](#): > > he wanted them drugged so he did it… I do quite a bit of writing, mostly for myself. I have a character I am simply not yet brave enough to commit to writing, however. That he is the sort who prefers unconscious, even dead women is simply the inconsequential result of who he is. The shocking part for me is how well I can empathize with him, despite loathing him at the same time. Cosby, whom I greatly admire as an entertainer, has added a whole new layer of complexity to consider. How do you resolve enjoying the good that is delivered to you by a monster? I’m damned if I know. The victims–easy, they were victims to varying degrees of various things and deserve to be respected as such; and that means thinking positively about the verdict. ---
**Author:** ![ThisSpaceForRent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thisspaceforrent/32/345_2.png) [@ThisSpaceForRent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThisSpaceForRent)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2018, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-cosby-guilty/813174/59 "2018-04-27T16:32:26Z")
Bill let me down…as a kid, I believed in him. I found this to be quite poignant. [Cliff Huxtable was Bill Cosby’s sickest joke](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/26/arts/television/cosby-show-african-americans.html) He should have been, IMHO, immediately remanded behind bars of any kind; jail, prison, pre-appeal/sentencing detention. He is pond scum. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2018, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-cosby-guilty/813174/60 "2018-04-27T16:58:43Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > I agree but I doubt he’ll see the inside of a prison. I predict a medical ‘episode’ that sees him hospitalized, possibly in a private facility, where his personal high paid Dr can keep him indefinitely on the pretext he’s shouldn’t be moved. If he does get to prison, I predict he’ll immediately have said medical episode with exactly the same result. > > The state will be more than willing to hand off his medical care, not wanting the scrutiny nor expense, I believe. Unless he dies within the next year, he’s almost certainly going to prison. Which prison he goes to, under what conditions, and for how long is what remains to be determined and probably negotiated by lawyers, but he’s not going to just buy his way out of jail. I doubt he gets the 30 year maximum concurrent sentencing. Someone familiar with PA sentencing guidelines would know what the likely outcome is, but I’m guessing somewhere between 5 and 10 years. Maybe some time off with good behavior, but he doesn’t have much time left so it probably won’t matter. He’ll probably be sent to a relatively safe prison and enjoy some degree of special protective custody, but his days as a free man are numbered. He will likely die in prison. And it’s really a monumental shame when you think about the times in which Cosby came of age and what his success meant to society at large. I don’t like bringing race into it, but I think it’s worth pointing out that he was among one of the most popular entertainers (regardless or ethnicity), and he defied common racist stereotypes that had been applied to African Americans. He was educated, erudite, well-mannered - the things which bigoted whites claimed African Americans weren’t capable of. He wasn’t just some self-deprecating minstrel. In the 1980s, Cosby turned his comedic talents into a full-on entertainment brand juggernaut. It was a great show, and once again, through his shows, he defied stereotypes. At a time when African Americans were still characterized in the media as drug dealing street thugs, he presented a much less threatening version of African Americans. It’s just damn sad to think that this is all almost seemingly…wasted. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-cosby-guilty/813174.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-cosby-guilty/813174.md?page=4)