April 13, 2018

“His robe opened... He smelled like cigar and espresso and his body odor.”

"Here was America’s Dad on top of me... a happily married man with five children, on top of me.”

Said Janice Dickerson, yesterday at the Cosby trial.

Today at the trial (also NYT), Andrea Costand testified:
“I was kind of jolted awake and felt Mr. Cosby on the couch beside me, behind me, and my vagina was being penetrated quite forcefully, and I felt my breast being touched,” Ms. Constand said. “I was limp, and I could not fight him off.”

36 comments:

chickelit said...

The drugs turned her into jello pudding.

Ann Althouse said...

So you think rape is funny, chickelit? I can't imagine what sort of mind thinks like that. Sad.

madAsHell said...

You know......It's your blog, but at this moment in time......you want to talk about Bill Cosby, and the women he raped?

Trump's on the TV telling us about military action in Syria, and Andrew McCabe is going to eat his barrel.

Maybe this is the time for a cafe post!!



wild chicken said...

I think famous guys get nutty with age.

Krumhorn said...

Do you think rape is funny, chickelit?

I suppose the threshold question is whether he raped her. 36 years ago, she went to his hotel room and took quaaludes, and there was some sort of sex. I don’t know. Lemme think. It was so long ago, I don’t remember exactly, but wasn’t that what party girls did? Particularly when partying with a famous popular guy?

Unless she screamed bloody murder and went to the police, I’m inclined to say we don’t know if it was rape over three decades later. In fact, I’m inclined to say that it wasn’t.

Maybe he was a pig. Maybe looking at him through the lens of current sensibilities, he behaved badly. But we cannot know he raped her.

Contemporary womyn: That’s not funny!!

- Krumhorn

Sebastian said...

"I can't imagine what sort of mind thinks like that."

Perhaps the kind of mind that thinks That's Not Funny is funny, perversely enjoys I-can't-imagine vapors, and doesn't take the woman's word for it.

Just speculatin'.

n.n said...

Rape or rape-rape?

It could be a warlock hunt. After several decades any forensic evidence (i.e. independent witnesses) would likely lack fidelity. So, it would be his and her testimony, and, perhaps, a preponderance of evidence to establish a pattern.

Otto said...

I don't think rape is funny and i don't think having married women who have a long history of sleeping with many and any men is funny. Stupid feminism movement - the use whores as cause celebre .

Darkisland said...

Jeez, Ann,

Why do you think a rape occurred at all? You're a lawyer, wouldn't you want to see some evidence? Where is it?

Or do you just believe that women NEVER lie about this?

Even when they testify under oath that they did lie about it un the past. As this woman testified under oath today that she has.

John Henry

gspencer said...

Ever since this got prominence I've been puzzled. Why did Cosby need, or feel the need, to use drugs to get to "know" - Biblically speaking - these women. Most of them would have willing to put out just for the asking. Maybe he got his jollies by doing unconscious women. Anyway, that's my question.

Big Mike said...

@Althouse, they went to his hotel room. Did they ingest drugs? What is the proof? Did they ingest the drugs voluntarily? Or involuntarily? Even if they did ingest drugs, you and I were both around back then and you should remember — as I do — the ubiquity of drug-taking in the party scene back then. (I’m not saying you participated, but you did live in New York for a while, so you should have at least heard something about it all.)

One thing is for certain: those women did not go to Cosby’s hotel room to discuss the toll of nuance in Chekhov’s plays.

rcocean said...

America's Dad?

America's Dads don't rape.

Can you imagine Ward Clever raping someone?

And Mr. Brady was Gay.

Otto said...

Ann did you vote for Clinton? If you did you didn't take rape seriously.

rcocean said...

I think Cosby is guilty of something - but I wouldn't call it rape rape.

If it was these women would've called the police.

Maybe it was semi-rape.

rcocean said...

Here's my advice to young women.

If someone "rapes" you - don't wait 20 years to go public.

Michael K said...

Here "memoir" blew the case. He gets acquitted and he should be.

Oso Negro said...

"Suddenly, unexpectedly, and for no reason, I found myself in Bill Cosby's hotel room complaining about my menstrual cramps."

Bill, Republic of Texas said...

So you think a rape occurred because a woman who has admitted to lying about the man to make money.

I can't imagine what sort of mind thinks like that. Sad!

Ken B said...

Althouse's slap at chikelit is vile. Chick is expressing skepticism. Althouse’s rebuke implies skepticism is immoral.

Wince said...

He smelled like cigar and espresso and his body odor.

Cosby denies each of the allegations, remembering instead his Hai Karate aftershave having worked its usual magic.

Big Mike said...

@Ken B, the word “vile” goes too far, but she does need to grasp the reality that women really do lie about being raped. It happens, and it happens with greater regularity than she imagines.

Ralph L said...

Rich or famous men need to video their casual encounters to prove they weren't rapes. that's the ticket.

YeeHaw! said...

Do we need to bring George Carlin in on this?

Google "George Carlin Porky Pig" for his definitely non-PC thoughts on this subject

n.n said...

video their casual encounters to prove they weren't rapes

Or Planned Promiscuity (PP).

Anonymous said...

"Ann Althouse said...

"So you think rape is funny, chickelit? I can't imagine what sort of mind thinks like that. Sad."

Ah, Althouse trolling again. Of course rape can be funny. The Holocaust can be funny -- see "Life Is Beautiful." And "Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?" Anything that causes fear or anxiety can be funny. That's part of how humor works.

Unfortunately, Chickelit's joke wasn't actually funny. But please don't hold that against all black humor.

Anonymous said...

In 2002 or earlier, Dickinson told both her ghostwriter and her publisher that Cosby raped her. They confirm this. The publisher advised her to leave it out, so she went with the "he hit on me but I told him no" version that is in the memoir instead.

Admittedly, it's a case of "You were lying in the memoir or you're lying now, so either way, you're a liar." But it's not as if she's claiming rape for the first time now.

Xmas said...

Openid,

She has the obvious out for the memoir of saying the editor was worried about getting sued for libel and if she was too ashamed to pursue a criminal case against Cosby, she was certainly too ashamed to defend against a libel claim.

Birkel said...

Oh, Althouse, can't you use the word alleged like everybody else does when a person has not been convicted. Is the jury system and all that due process too much a drag?

For all I know, this was all consensual. I trust a jury of my peers to be the best judges of whether a crime happened.

Also, "That's not funny" is a punchline.

(And why haven't feminists attacked the word punchline as overly violent?)

tim maguire said...

Of all the famous men brought down by our recent harassment hysteria, the Coz disappoints me most. I hope he didn't do it and I hope he gets off. But I hope he gets off because he didn't do it, not because he has a good lawyer.

AllenS said...

Ann Althouse said...
So you think rape is funny, chickelit?

I was very surprised to find out this morning that the trial was over, and Crosby was found guilty.

Wince said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
JAORE said...

After decades it's hard to think there is much to go on except the old, "Where there's smoke....".

But some of the complainants I feel a but of skepticism.

At least Ms. Seymour can point to a history of avoiding acts intended to return her to the spotlight long after she was forgotten (again). /sarc

Michael K said...

Allen, the trail the trial is not over.

On Friday, she denied ever having intimate contact with Cosby prior to the alleged assault at his home in 2004. But in a 2005 deposition that Mesereau showed her, Constand said she'd told her mother that she was affectionate toward him.

Mesereau also brought up an issue discussed during the first trial last year, pointing out that Constand told one police agency the alleged assault occurred in January 2004 but told another it was in March 2004.

“I was mistaken,” Constand said.

Mesereau also questioned her about an issue he brought up in his opening statement: Constand's alleged involvement in a pyramid scheme. Constand struggled to explain why she sent emails soliciting money for the purported scheme during the time she worked at Temple University.

Constand said she didn't know much about the company and was only helping a friend.

Shortly after 5 p.m., after Constand had been on the stand for about five hours, the judge concluded testimony for the day. Constand will return on Monday for Day 6 of the retrial and Mesereau will continue his cross-examination.


More Monday.

Trumpit said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Trumpit said...

I date myself, but I saw Bill Cosby in a Las Vegas Show decades ago. It was a two for one, with the Scottish singer, Lulu. It must have been in the late 60's when she had a hit with "To Sir with Love." That's fifty years ago for goodness sake. It is truly shocking the criminal charges he is now facing at eighty years of age.

Michael K said...

"It is truly shocking the criminal charges he is now facing at eighty years of age."

He is being punished for talking about the black family.

Clarence Thomas had the same experience but he has far less material for the to work with,

Any black that even sounds conservative is vulnerable.