Bill Cosby sexual assault cases
In 2014, multiple allegations emerged that Bill Cosby, a film, television, and stand-up comedy star often cited as a trailblazer for African Americans in the entertainment industry, had sexually assaulted dozens of women throughout his career. Cosby was well known in the United States for the fatherly image he conveyed through his portrayal of Cliff Huxtable in the sitcom The Cosby Show and gained a reputation as "America's Dad", but the allegations ended his career and sharply diminished his status as a pop culture icon. He received numerous awards and honorary degrees throughout his career, many of which were revoked. There were previous allegations against Cosby, but they were dismissed and accusers were ignored or disbelieved.
Over 60 women have accused Cosby of rape, drug-facilitated sexual assault, sexual battery, child sexual abuse, and sexual harassment. The earliest incidents allegedly took place in the mid-1960s. Assault allegations against Cosby became more public after a stand-up routine by fellow comedian Hannibal Buress in October 2014, alluding to Cosby's covert sexual misbehavior; thereafter, many additional claims were made. The dates of the alleged incidents span from 1965 to 2008 in ten U.S. states and one Canadian province. Cosby has maintained his innocence and repeatedly denied the allegations, but they nonetheless have effectively ended his career and destroyed his legacy. Amid the allegations, numerous organizations severed ties with Cosby and revoked honors and titles awarded to him. Media organizations pulled reruns of The Cosby Show and other television programs featuring Cosby from syndication. Ninety-seven colleges and universities rescinded honorary degrees.
Most of the alleged acts fall outside the statute of limitations for criminal legal proceedings, but criminal charges were filed against Cosby in one case and numerous civil lawsuits were brought against him. As of November 2015, eight related civil suits were active against him. Gloria Allred represented 33 of the alleged victims. In July 2015, some court records were unsealed and released to the public from Andrea Constand's 2005 civil suit against Cosby, concerning a sexual assault in Cosby's home in January 2004; at that time, no criminal charges were filed. The full transcript of his deposition was released to the media by a court reporting service. In his testimony, Cosby admitted to casual sex involving recreational use of the sedative-hypnotic methaqualone with a series of young women but with their full consent and knowledge, and he acknowledged that his dispensing of the prescription drug was illegal. In December 2015, three Class II felony charges of aggravated indecent assault were filed against Cosby in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, based on allegations by Constand concerning incidents in January 2004. Cosby's first trial in June 2017 ended in a mistrial. Cosby was found guilty of three counts of aggravated indecent assault at retrial on April 26, 2018 and on September 25, 2018, he was sentenced to three to ten years in state prison and fined $25,000 plus the cost of the prosecution, $43,611.
Cosby appealed on June 25, 2019, and the verdict was subsequently upheld and granted an appeal by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. On June 30, 2021, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court found that an agreement with previous prosecutor Bruce Castor prevented Cosby from being charged in the case, and overruled the conviction. The Supreme Court's decision prevents him from being tried on the same charges a third time. The Montgomery County district attorney's office filed a certiorari petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case, but on March 7, 2022, the petition was denied, making the decision of the state supreme court final. Cosby's legal issues continued following his release from prison. In 2014, Judy Huth had filed a civil suit against Cosby in California, alleging that he had sexually assaulted her in 1975 at age 16. The trial began in 2022, and the jury ruled in Huth's favour. Cosby was ordered to pay $500,000 in compensatory damages. In 2023, nine women filed sexual assault suits against Cosby.
Background
1965–1996 allegations
The earliest allegation against Bill Cosby dates back to December 1965: in 2005, Kristina Ruehli came forward as Jane Doe #12 in the Andrea Constand case and alleged that Cosby drugged and assaulted her then in his Beverly Hills home. Further, Ruehli said she told her boyfriend about the incident, and told her daughter in the 1980s.In the early 1980s, Joan Tarshis told freelance reporter John Milward about an alleged sexual assault by Cosby. Milward did not write about the allegations. In 1996, Playboy Playmate Victoria Valentino gave a videotaped interview in which she made sexual assault allegations against Cosby. The interview was conducted for an exposé on the lives of Playboy models, which was never published.
After the allegations resurfaced in 2014, Wendy Williams recalled that during her radio show in 1990, she referred to sexual assault allegations against Cosby published in the National Enquirer tabloid. Williams said Cosby called her boss during the broadcast demanding that Williams be fired.
Later allegations and investigations (2000–2006)
On February 1, 2000, according to a statement by Detective Jose McCallion of the New York County District Attorney's Special Victims Bureau, Lachele Covington, who was 20 years old at the time, filed a criminal complaint against Cosby alleging that on January 28, 2000, at his Manhattan townhouse, he tried to put her hands down his pants and exposed himself. Covington also alleged that Cosby grabbed her breasts and tried to put his hands down her pants. Cosby was questioned and insisted "it was not true." The New York City Police Department referred her complaint to the D.A., but they declined to prosecute.In January 2004, Andrea Constand, a former Temple University employee, accused Cosby of drugging and fondling her; however, in February 2005, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania's District Attorney said there would be no charges due to insufficient credible and admissible evidence. Constand then filed a civil claim in March 2005, with thirteen women as potential witnesses if the case went to trial. Cosby settled out of court for an undisclosed amount in November 2006. After learning that charges were not pursued in the Constand case, California lawyer Tamara Lucier Green, the only publicly-named woman in the prior case, alleged in February 2005 that Cosby drugged and assaulted her in the 1970s. Cosby's lawyer said Cosby did not know her and that the events did not happen.
In a July 2005 Philadelphia Daily News interview, Beth Ferrier, an anonymous "Jane Doe" witness in the Constand case, alleged that in 1984 Cosby drugged her coffee and she awoke with her clothes partially removed. In 2005, Shawn Upshaw Brown, a woman with whom Cosby admitted to having an extramarital affair in the 1970s, claimed in the National Enquirer that Cosby drugged and raped her the last time the two were together sexually. Brown is the mother of Autumn Jackson, who claims to be Cosby's illegitimate daughter. Jackson was convicted in 1997 of extortion after she threatened to make the claims public in the Globe tabloid. In 2015, Brown went into more detail with her renewed allegations in an interview.
On June 9, 2006, Philadelphia magazine published an article by Robert Huber which gave graphic detail about Constand's allegations, and the similar stories told by Green and Ferrer about how they too were drugged and sexually assaulted. With these severe allegations against Cosby, Huber wrote: "His lawyers have gotten it pushed to the back burner, down to a simmer, and maybe it will amount to nothing, yet there is also the possibility that it will bubble up to destroy him." The article was titled Dr. Huxtable & Mr. Hyde, an allusion to both Cosby's character Dr. Cliff Huxtable on The Cosby Show and to a person having two starkly distinct "Jekyll and Hyde" personalities. This article also presented Barbara Bowman, who came forward after reading about Constand's story, saying she could not sit in silence any longer. Details of Bowman's similar drug and sexual assault allegations were published in the magazine's November 1, 2006, issue. Bowman reported two incidents occurring around early 1986, wherein she was eighteen years old and working as an aspiring model and actress after her agent introduced her to Cosby and he became a good friend and mentor, saying that she escaped his attacks, returned home to Denver, and Cosby thereafter subverted her career.
Hannibal Buress remarks (October 2014)
On October 16, 2014, as part of a stand-up comedy routine in Philadelphia, Hannibal Buress addressed Cosby's legacy of "talk down" to young black men about their mode of dress and lifestyle. Buress criticized the actor's public moralizing by saying, "Yeah, but you raped women, Bill Cosby, so that kind of brings you down a couple notches." When the audience appeared to respond to Buress's accusation as an incredulous joke, he encouraged everyone to search "Bill Cosby rape" on Google.Buress had used the same Cosby routine for the previous six months with little response, but word of the October performance spread rapidly after being posted on Philadelphia magazine's website. Media coverage intensified, with numerous publications tackling the question of how Cosby managed to maintain, as Buress called it in his routine, a "teflon image" despite over a decade of public sexual abuse accusations.
Shortly afterward, USA Today reported that either Cosby or his representative posted a request for Twitter followers to "Go ahead. Meme me!" The tweet was deleted after a large number of submitted memes referenced the accusations against Cosby.