In April of 2018, Bill Cosby was found guilty by a jury of felony sexual assault. At the age of 81, he faces a thirty year sentence if he can not win an appeal. The guilty verdict follows a long line of allegations and accusations that became indictments and finally, a conviction.
As with many such cases, we might never know totally what happened. There were many other accusations against Mr. Cosby, all falling into a similar pattern: using his fame to groom them, followed by a sexual assault that typically involved the use of depressant drugs. Many of these cases did not have corroborating witnesses. Some of them were outside the statute of limitations. But at least one of these accusations has been found to be true in a court of law. Bill Cosby is a convicted sex criminal. At least some of his behavior he admitted to in a deposition, where he admitted giving Quaaludes to women during sexual encounters, but denied that it was for criminal purposes.
A legal verdict is an easy thing to describe. The moral implications of it are not. Bill Cosby, along with being an entertainer, was active in helping his community and was an inspiration for many young African-American entertainers. It is hard to feel good about the downfall of someone who seemed to genuinely inspire people, especially when historically many other African-Americans have been punished so terribly for even perceived deviations from what is socially acceptable. But along with being convicted of sexual assault, Cosby has also been a hypocrite, chastising others, especially within the black community, for their failure to act in a way that he considered appropriate. In one famous speech, he berated black men for wearing their pants too low. Bill Cosby seemed to believe that as long as he acted the part, as long as he wore sweaters and pants that fit, that as long he maintained a squeaky-clean public image, that his private behavior was somehow acceptable, or at least deniable. And for a long time, he was right. But times changed, and his exploitative, abusive behavior finally caught up with him.