On Thursday, a Pennsylvania jury found Bill Cosby guilty of three counts of aggravated indecent assault. This is one of the first major criminal convictions since the start of the #MeToo movement and brings vindication for the dozens of woman who alleges that Cosby, known as “America’s Dad”, drugged and sexually abused them.
In majority of the cases brought against Cosby, the statue of limitations passed long before the women came forward with their accusations. In 2015, however, Cosby was charged with the 2004 assault of Andrea Costand, who said that Cosby gave her pills in his suburban Pennsylvania home that left her incapacitated, and then proceeded to molesting her.
“I felt Mr. Cosby on the couch behind me, and my vagina was being penetrated quite forcefully, and I felt my breasts being touched,” Constand testified. She then said she was too weak to fight Cosby off: “I wanted it to stop,” she said. “I couldn’t say anything. I was trying to get my hands to move, my legs to move, and the message just wasn’t getting there.”
The case first went to trial in June 2017, but ended in a mistrial. After that, the #MeToo movement came forward. This resulted in the New York Times and the New Yorker reporting on widespread allegations of sexual abuse against Harvey Weinstein and many other high-profile men who abused their positions and power.
Cosby now faced up to 10 years in prison for each of the three counts brought against him.
