Disclaimer: This article contains mentions of sexual assault and abuse. Reader discretion is advised.
Bill Cosby, who faces sexual assault and misconduct allegations from more than 50 women, is not in jail anymore. In 2018, Cosby, a comedian-actor, landed in prison after a conviction in Pennsylvania on a criminal sex assault charge. Then, in 2021, the state’s top court overturned his conviction, releasing him from his three-to-10-year prison sentence. Bill Cosby was out of jail about three years after his conviction and returned to his suburban Philadelphia home.
Showtime’s award-winning documentary series We Need to Talk About Cosby looks into the allegations against Bill Cosby. Bill Cosby: An American Scandal is another docuseries that chronicles the shocking revelation from the case against him. The actor once starred in the American sitcom The Cosby Show, which premiered in 1984 and aired for eight seasons.
What is Bill Cosby accused of and when was he released from prison?
Bill Cosby was released from prison in June 2021 after Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court overturned his conviction, reported The New York Times. The case against Cosby began in 2015 following his arrest on sexual assault allegations. The charges stemmed from a 2004 case accusing Cosby of drugging and then sexually assaulting a woman at his home in the Philadelphia home. He also faces other sexual assault and misconduct allegations made by over 50 women.
The outlet stated that a Pennsylvania jury convicted Bill Cosby on three counts of aggravated indecent assault. The victim was Andrea Constand, whom the actor had been mentoring at the time. During Cosby’s High-profile trial, Contsand spoke about the sexual assault for the first time, reported BBC. She claimed the renowned actor offered her herbal, stress-relieving pills. He told her that the pills would “take the edge off.”
Constand claimed that some 20 minutes after taking the pills, she had blurry vision and began losing sight. That’s when Cosby started touching her inappropriately on his genitals. She claimed that she tried “to get my hands to move or my legs to move” in her head. Constand added that she was “frozen” and that she “wasn’t able to fight it in any way. I wanted it to stop.”
The Cosby Show actor’s lawyers had argued that the sex between the defendant and Andrea Constant was consensual. Additionally, they pointed out that she changed her story multiple times. Cosby also denied all the charges he was facing.
Several other women have made several accusations against Bill Cosby, alleging that he drugged them before sexually assaulting them. The Guardian reported that five women in New York filed a lawsuit against the former actor in December 2022. These women claimed that he sexually assaulted or abused them, making it one of the many lawsuits against him.
