The organization Women in Film released a statement that read, in part: “Today’s news is a setback in the fight for justice for sexual assault survivors. When the system disregards dozens of accusers in a situation like this — because of a technical loophole, not because of the proof that l...
Not everyone was disheartened by the court’s decision. Phylicia Rashad, who played Cosby’s TV wife, Clair Huxtable, throughout the show’s run from 1984 to 1992, continued to stand by the actor. “FINALLY!!!! A terrible wrong is being righted- a miscarriage of justice is corrected!” she ...
“On today’s episode of ‘How the Justice System Fails Victims’: Bill Cosby released on a technicality,” tweeted the former California congresswoman Katie Hill.
“I sure didn’t have a court negating 50-something sexual assault allegations and freeing Bill Cosby on my Armageddon Bingo card …” tweeted MSNBC host Joy Reid
“To every woman who was sexual assaulted by #BillCosby my heart hurts for you today and I am full fury. It’s horrifying,” tweeted Debra Messing.
Its reversal prompted several expressions of grief after a hard-won victory for #MeToo supporters. “Heartbreaking for all survivors. #MeToo lasts forever,” tweeted Ellen Barkin.
Justice David Wecht wrote that Cosby had relied on the former prosecutor’s decision not to charge him when he gave potentially incriminating testimony in Constand’s prior civil suit. Laws on bad actors differ by state, but the reversal could make prosecutors wary of calling other accusers in ...
Cosby, 83, was arrested in 2015 and convicted in 2018 of drugging and assaulting Andrea Constand, a Temple University employee, at his suburban estate in 2004. The sitcom star has served more than two years of his three- to 10-year sentence at a state prison near Philadelphia. He vowed to serve all
“THIS is why women do not come forward,” tweeted the longtime advice columnist E Jean Carroll, who herself is one of several women to have credibly accused Donald Trump of sexual assault. (Carroll has since sued Trump for defamation.)
“I am furious to hear this news,” wrote the actor Amber Tamblyn on Twitter. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants star, who has been open on social media with her own experiences with sexual assault, added that she personally knew “women who this man drugged and raped while unconscious. S...
The surprise reversal of Bill Cosby’s sexual assault conviction by Pennsylvania’s highest court on Wednesday drew widespread shock and fury – particularly in and around Hollywood, where the comedian was once a sitcom titan known as “America’s Dad”.
Figures in and around Hollywood express disappointment and frustration after the Pennsylvania supreme court’s decision
One accuser was allowed to testify in Cosby’s first trial in 2017, and the jury was deadlocked. A trial judge then allowed five additional accusers to testify in a retrial, who had similar alleged experiences with him in the 1980s.
The 83-year-old Cosby had been incarcerated at SCI Phoenix, a state prison outside Philadelphia, after a jury convicted him in 2018 of three aggravated indecent assault counts –– and the court deemed the inmate a “sexually violent predator” who posed an “imminent safety risk to women”.
During a court hearing weeks after Cosby’s 2015 arrest, Castor testified that he promised Cosby he wouldn’t be prosecuted in the hopes that it would persuade the actor to testify in a civil case brought by Constand and allow her to win damages.
Castor acknowledged the only place the matter was put in writing was in the 2005 press release announcing his decision not to prosecute, but said his decision was meant to shield Cosby from prosecution “for all time.”
On Wednesday, the state supreme court disagreed. The justices ruled that Cosby relied on that promise that he would not be prosecuted when he agreed to testify without invoking his fifth amendment right against self-incrimination in a lawsuit brought against him by Constand.
According to court documents, the prosecutor, the prominent and controversial Pennsylvania Republican Bruce Castor, never told Constand of his decision to permanently forgo prosecuting Cosby in criminal court. Despite this, the court ruled in Cosby’s favor on Wednesday.
Constand alleges she was drugged by Cosby into unconsciousness in his home, and woke on his couch to find her pants unzipped and bra out of place after previous unwanted sexual advances. Cosby claimed to have given Constand Benadryl, and that any interaction was consensual.