Bill Cosby became a household name in the 1980s for being what many people saw as the ultimate father figure because of his role in The Cosby Show. With his eccentric sweaters and great advice to his onscreen children, Cosby was hailed a family man. But, in 2014, allegations that he drugged and took advantage of numerous women arose and Cosby was suddenly known for something very different.
After a decade of keeping it to herself, one of Cosby’s victims came forward with information regarding an altercation between the two in which Cosby drugged and raped her. Shortly after, more than 55 women reportedly came forward with similar allegations.
When this information was first released, it came as a shock to many of Cosby’s long time fans and followers. Cosby was seen by a lot of people as “America’s dad” off screen for publicly calling on young people to act responsibly. Being the moralist that he was, it seemed almost hypocritical to the public after events from his past caught up to him.
His first victim, Andrea Constand, worked in Philadelphia for Temple University women's basketball team at the time of the assault. Cosby was a trusted advisor to Constand so she saw nothing wrong with visiting his house for career advice.
A senior at Newtown High School, Rachel Crosby, felt rather strongly about the news surrounding Cosby.
“I never really watched The Cosby Show when I was a kid, but when I heard the news I was still pretty upset,” Crosby said. “It’s really disturbing to me. The fact that so many women released statements that they were drugged and raped by Cosby is just appalling.”
Bruce Castor, the district attorney that did not charge Cosby when Constand first reported the event, dismissed the case because he felt that both Cosby and Constand would end up with both of their names tarnished. He felt the case was not worth pursuing. Once more women began to step forward and the case was reopened, Castor stated that if he had known all that he knew now, he would have pressed charges on Cosby back in 2004. But, due to lack of information Constand shared at the time, the lawsuit was nonetheless confidentially settled.
“The fact that this case was ever dismissed is concerning,” NHS senior Sean Runkle said. “Just because they didn’t want any bad publicity is no reason to excuse what happened and dismiss the case. Rape is unfortunately a big epidemic present day. It’s scary that they took what happened so lightly when the first victim came forward. You really need over 55 women to come forward before you realize this is a problem?”
After admitting he did use quaaludes to seduce women, Cosby stated that they were not given without the women’s knowledge and consent. He claimed that he used them to calm down their nerves and offer them the chance to loosen up, just like offering them alcohol. Many of these exchanges took place in the 1970s, when there was not as much of a stigma or wide use of quaaludes.
“I find it odd that he had to drug women, consensually or not, in order to be intimate with them. Something about that leaves a bad taste in my mouth,” Runkle said.
Although many people are disgusted by Cosby’s actions, there are some people actually defending him. Singer R. Kelly came forward with a bit of confusion towards the intentions of the women rather than of Cosby.
“I’m a fan of Bill Cosby’s from the Bill Cosby Show, of course. Who’s not? and for me to give my opinion on something that I have no idea if it’s true or not, all I can say is that it was a long time ago,” Kelly stated in an interview with GQ. “When I look on TV and I see the 70, 80, 90 year-old ladies talking about what happened when they were 17, 18, or 19, there’s something strange about it. That’s my opinion. It’s just strange.”
Kelly, who was put in a similar position as Cosby back in 2008, found something off in the fact that the women took such a long time to come forward. Without saying it outright, Kelly hinted to the idea that many of the accusations might be false.
“When you wait 70 years, 50 years, 40 years, to say something that simple, it’s strange. You know why I say that is because it happened to me, and it wasn’t true,” Kelly said.
Recently, Pennsylvania prosecutors made the move to file legal docs that object to Cosby's attempt to dismiss the case. Cosby seemed to be under the impression that he could get the case to go away on grounds he had previously made a deal to never file the case with the former D.A. who had originally handled the case in 2004. Current district attorney Kevin Steele said that a D.A. has no legal authority to permit anybody immunity from prosecution, let alone Cosby. Steele claimed that only a judge has that right.
Regardless of anybody’s personal feelings towards new victims coming forward, the fact of the matter is signs lead to the major possibility that many of them may be telling the truth. One thing is for certain, and that is that this is not the end of Cosby’s case.
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