Bill Cosby arriving at court in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Bill Cosby was formally charged on Wednesday for a decade-old sexual assault case in Pennsylvania that started the controversy consuming his career. The alleged victim is a former Temple University employee named Andrea Constand, who has long claimed that the world-famous comedian molested her in 2004 after handing her some blue pills and instructing her to take them with wine.
This past July, a long deposition from Constand's civil suit against Cosby was unsealed, and in it, he admitted to using Quaaludes to get women to become more amenable to his sexual advances. Dozens of women have come forward to say they had similar experiences, and Constand's outstanding accusation—the first officially levied against Cosby—became a hot-button political issue in suburban Philadelphia, and across the country. The charges were finally filed just days before the statute of limitations was set to expire in the Constand case. (Many of the other allegations against Cosby concern incidents where the statue of limitations have run out.)
That such a high-profile alleged serial rapist is finally facing criminal charges seems like a positive development. But does Cosby looking at the possibility of jail time mean anything for the 50-plus other women who have accused him of assault? And what are the chances he actually winds up behind bars? We spoke to Stuart Slotnick, a New York defense attorney, about what might happen next in the Cosby saga, and how his criminal case is likely to play out in court.
VICE: So what do these charges in Pennsylvania mean for the dozens of other women who have made similar accusations against Bill Cosby? Will there be more criminal charges forthcoming, and will this force other prosecutors to reexamine old cases?
Stuart Slotnick: I don't think that these charges have anything to do with what could happen with other cases where the plaintiffs made allegations against Bill Cosby. The reason is because in many of the cases, the statute of limitations has run out. That means the prosecutor cannot bring a case even if they want to bring a case. This particular case was looked at about ten years ago and the prosecutor could affect sentencing. If he's convicted of this case, then the prosecution will argue that it's not an one-off incident, and he's a sexual predator, and you should consider this while sentencing him.
Bill Cosby should be concerned, because the prosecution might try to bring in other complainants. And even though he's not charged with sexually assaulting the other complainants, there is a body of law that allows prosecutors to bring in uncharged alleged crimes to show that it's a common scheme or plan—or a modus operandi, an MO. So I can guarantee they will try to bring in other people to testify and say, "He called me up under the guise of an audition, he gave me alcohol and pills, my vision went blurry, and the next thing I knew I was naked and it was hours later."
If they can get that evidence in, it's very damning.
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