#himtoo

The big story of today, of course, was the conviction of Bill Cosby, once "America's Dad" who could always be counted on to dispense some advice on how people should conduct their lives, on three counts of indecent assault of Andrea Constand.  Constand, as you will recall, was the woman who brought a civil suit against him years ago and she settled out of court. 

This was the second trial for Cosby.  The first ended in a hung jury after six days of deliberations.  This time it took two.

I didn't follow either trial closely because I had heard years ago, when I lived in Reno, of Cosby's alleged assaults.  It was no news to me, and I have believed the women who came forward with their allegations against him.  Cosby made many, many trips to the Reno area entertaining in the casinos, and he and wife Camille were major donors to the University of Nevada, Reno, where I graduated with two degrees.  I had heard stories about him at least since the 1990s, before the Constand suit.

Of course, Cosby and his lawyers will fight the conviction.  Cosby is now 80 and not in great health, so I doubt he would spend much time in prison at all.

From the article:

The verdict now marks the bottom of a fall as precipitous as any in show business history and leaves in limbo a large slice of American popular culture from Mr. Cosby’s six-decade career as a comedian and actor. For the last few years, his TV shows, films and recorded stand-up performances, once broadcast staples, have largely been shunned, and with his conviction, they are likely to remain so.

At Mr. Cosby’s retrial, in the same courthouse and before the same judge, a new defense team argued unsuccessfully that Ms. Constand, now 45, was a desperate “con artist” with financial problems who steadily worked her famous but lonely mark for a lucrative payday.

The prosecution countered that it was Mr. Cosby who had been a deceiver, hiding behind his amiable image as America’s Dad to prey on women that he first incapacitated with intoxicants. During closing arguments Tuesday, Ms. Feden told the jury: “She is not the con. He is.”