A Pennsylvania jury found Bill Cosby guilty of three counts of aggravated indecent assault on Thursday, one of the first major criminal convictions since the beginning of the #MeToo movement and a vindication for the dozens of women who said that the comedian known as “America’s Dad” drugged and sexually abused them.
In most of those cases, the statute of limitations passed long before the women came forward. But in 2015, Cosby was charged with the 2004 assault of Andrea Costand, who said Cosby had given her pills in his suburban Pennsylvania home that left her incapacitated and then molested her.
The case first went to trial in June 2017, and ended in a mistrial. Then came the #MeToo movement. After the New York Times and the New Yorker reported on the widespread allegations of sexual abuse by Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, more and more stories came pouring out about high-profile men who abused their power.
Ten months elapsed between the two trials, but Cosby returned to court in a very different climate. And this time, during a two-week retrial that featured testimony from five other women who say Cosby assaulted them too, the jury believed the women.
Cosby could face up to 10 years in prison for each of the three counts against him.
The verdict: “We can say women are believed.”
“Today, this jury has shown what the #MeToo movement is saying is that women are worthy of being believed,” Lili Bernard, one of the about 60 women who have accused Cosby of sexual assault, said outside the Montgomery County Courthouse after the jury announced its guilty verdict.
Bernard and other survivors openly sobbed and embraced after the guilty verdict — something that seemed out of reach after the mistrial last year.
