An arrest warrant has been issued for Bill Cosby for his alleged January 2004 sexual assault of Andrea Constand. Is this too little, too late? Or is it just too late for Cosby to receive a fair trial?

Neither. It’s about time. Finally, a prosecutor has a case they can bring to trial.

I think it is definitely time. Too bad so many of the other allegations are past the statute of limitations.
As for a fair trial. he can get one.

I’m pretty sure the only people who are qualified to serve a jurors are people who literally live in caves. An actual fair trial might be difficult.

As unbelievable as it may seem, there are people in this country who don’t watch television and people who are not enthralled by the ongoing soap opera of celebrity lives. I think jurors can be found.

After Tamir Rice, what the hell does a “fair trial” mean? It is well past time for Bill Cosby to stand trial.

I’m almost not too concerned about his upcoming battle over finding jurors.I surprise myself on that thought.
I am so angry with what he allegedly did all those years.
I don’t think I am too excited about Whoopie Goldberg saying that he was being accused by ‘white women’ and believed in his innocence. She thought they were all suing him for the $. And this was not at the beginning of it all, either.
I was gobsmacked! I took her for someone else also, I guess.
How disappointing.
I believe that these women- all of them, could not have come forward about it at that time. It will be interesting to see if they will be able to at this point and date.
Wow.

I seriously doubt if the case will go to trial. I’m wondering what measures the man has taken to remove his assets from within range of the deluge of civil litigation. 60 years of work from an icon of his profession tossed down the toilet. The world just makes less and less sense all the time.

He’ll hire the best lawyers and be acquitted.

@jca Not an absolute. Look at Jerry Sandusky and the rapes he committed at Penn State. I didn’t think he would be found guilty, but he was.

I agree that it’s time there was a trial, @zenvelo, @marinelife & @janbb. Past time.

Well, there are a lot of people that don’t want to believe he’s guilty, @Seek.

If Cosby proves to be a serial rapist, that’s hardly ‘celebrity soap opera’. @Jeruba. I haven’t had a TV channel since 1998–9 and I’ve been aware of the Cosby allegations for months. I even remember when they surfaced in years past.

I didn’t know that about Whoopie, @msh. Like there’s no embarrassment or humiliation in publicly admitting you were raped.

I have my doubts that it will go to trial, too, @stanleybmanly. 60 years as an icon, 40 years as a rapist if the allegations prove true.

“If the glove doesn’t fit…” @jca. We know it happens

True, @chyna, but the celebrity factor is in Cosby’s favor.

There are a bunch of millions difference between Sandusky and Crosby

^Agree. The whole thing makes me sad and sick.

One thing that I find upsetting is that I can’t understand Cosby’s motivation. As a celebrity with a very favorable public image, I am sure that he would have had no trouble finding attractive women with whom to have consensual sex. Why did he prefer to knock his partners out and force himself on them? It goes beyond criminal behavior. It is downright creepy.

It is not too late.

Bill Cosby in prison for a year or two? Sounds about right…whatever.

@LostInParadise: Bill Cosby could not only have found willing females but if not, he could have definitely afforded some whores. He obviously likes the passed out female (allegedly) original he is sick in a way that we do not know.

Rape’s not about sex, it’s about power, @LostInParadise. @jca‘s right, if proven guilty, Cosby has a perverse sickness.

More than a year or two is at stake, @GLOOM

What Cosby is being accused of definitely counts as rape, but I wonder if power was the actual motivation. I think of power as imposing your will upon someone who is conscious of what you are doing. Seeing the other person cringe and protest are part of the sadistic power trip. What power is there in knocking someone out and forcing yourself into a limp body? It is more like necrophilia.

He has the power to make the person go to sleep, or be so out of it that she is uninhibited and then doesn’t remember. To me, necrophilia is a whole nother can of worms. A cold body, etc.

Edit above, meant to type “or else ” and not “original. ”

I just read about his arrest. They said he is supposedly almost blind and he appeared to have trouble holding the pen.

My prediction is he’s going to start acting feeble to get sympathy from judge, jury and public.

Obviously, all of the women were aware of the rape after the fact, so it’s still a power trip, @LostInParadise

Somehow I can’t keep from thinking of Jeffrey Dahmer trying to kill the consciousness of his victims in search of the ultimate sex slave. A living, breathing blow-up doll. He could rape.

I don’t doubt he had trouble holding the pen, @jca. I would have trouble holding the pen, given what’s at stake for Cosby.

But justice prevail. Bernie Madoff is rotting in prison.
Although in his case (as in Cosby’s if proven guilty) the crime might have been worth the time.

I think the Madoff case was different because there was surely tons and tons of evidence against him – documents, computer files, etc. showing what he did. In Cosby’s case, there are these women from 10 years ago who are claiming he did what he did. A good attorney will discredit the women – their memories, what they were doing on that night, were they drinking? their sexual history, etc. I’m not saying I agree with that tactic, but that’s what defense attorneys do. Is there any solid evidence that proves Cosby did what he did? If there is, of course it will be revealed in the trial, but I have not heard of any.

As I understand it, a significant development is the release of information on Cosby’s testimony from the civil suit brought against Cosby, which resulted in a settlement. The only thing that I have seen regarding this testimony is the admission by Cosby that he gave quaaludes to the women. It is not clear how damning that will be. Cosby will no doubt claim that the women knowingly and voluntarily took the drugs. We will just have to wait to see what impact this and the rest of his testimony will have.

I meant Madoff simply to illustrate that there are, indeed, limits to “acting feeble to get sympathy from judge, jury and public.” @jca Being old doesn’t necessarily mitigate the punishment.
I wasn’t trying to compare cases in other respects.

Yet there’s a certain dulling of justice in running down a decrepit old man and throwing him uselessly in jail for crimes committed decades ago. What difference will it make for a man in his 90s to spend his days in
some facility that is probably more comfortable than my house. Given my druthers, I’d have him fork over enough money that the woman wouldn’t have to work for ten years or so, then assign him to scrubbing her floors and cleaning her toilets.

In the end, no sentence Cosby might draw is as important as the disgrace to his reputation and legacy. The only real benefit I can see to a prison sentence is that his name will join the 3 or 4 others validating answers to the trivia challenge: Name a rich man doin time.

I’m sure the victims disagree, @stanleybmanly.
Money’s great (and no doubt there will be some involved), but removing the dignity and comfort of Cosby’s final years has to seem fitting to at least some of them.

@stanleybmanly: Rich man doin’ time: Robert Durst.