BREAKING: Bill Cosby found guilty of felony sexual assault

Tough news, but hardly surprising given what’s come out in recent years. I suppose this has had enough years to sink in that we’re past the shock of realizing how great the chasm was between Cosby the public persona and Cosby the real person. At this point it was just a matter of whether he would ever really face legal sanction for the things he did.

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Yep. He will:

Bill Cosby has been convicted of drugging and sexually assaulting former Temple employee Andrea Constand in January 2004. Montgomery County jurors deliberated for about 14 hours, beginning Wednesday, before handing down the verdict. Cosby was convicted on three charges, each of which carries a prison sentence of three years: aggravated indecent assault: penetration with lack of consent; penetration while unconscious; and penetration after administrating an intoxicant. Prosecutors alleged that he assaulted Constand, now 44, in his Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, mansion in January 2004. The defense countered that the sexual contact was consensual. Both sides presented 12 days of testimony and evidence to the seven-man, five-woman jury. Cosby denies similar allegations from more than 60 women. Prosecutors portrayed Cosby as a serial sexual predator who deceived people with his persona as “America’s Dad,” while his defense has said that women have fabricated their accounts.

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It still seems astonishing to me that a single person could have perpetrated such behavior on this many different women, fully expecting that all of them would keep quiet because of who he was. And for years, his calculation was correct. He was able to operate with impunity because his celebrity and his influence simply made it practically implausible for women to go public with the things he had done behind the scenes. It was no different than Harvey Weinstein. A lot of trends in modern times are not positive ones for society. People are too easily offended, too sensitive, too partisan and too willing to destroy others as blood sport. None of this is good. But if we’ve also decided it’s not OK to commit serial sexual assault just because you’re rich, famous and powerful, then at least we’ve gotten one thing right. I really liked the Bill Cosby we all thought we knew. Remember, Hollywood is in the business of illusions

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