Bill Cosby raped me, why doesn't anyone believe me?

[TheCat]

Oh, and it's definitely a conspiracy. Ask Rush Limbaugh. He'll tell you that the "lame-stream media" are finally getting back at Cosby for his firm words to the black community.

http://www.mediaite.com/online/limbaugh-hits-cnn-for-cosby-rape-coverage-its-not-like-he-did-it-yesterday

Does rape really count if it happened in the past? 

[TheCat]

^^^I agree. I'll chalk it up as an infidelity issue and not rape until further notice. There's no one the can tell me that those women looked truthful during those interviews (CNN etc), not to mention waiting decades later to accuse a person. Sadly, many times when women cry rape, the accused is guilty until proven innocent in the court of public opinion.   

Well, why do you believe that there was infidelity? 

[I-10east]

^^^How long it's taking him to respond against these allegations; typically that's a red flag. Just my opinion. 

[Tacachale]

Mayor Brown campaign returning Cosby fundraising money

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Money donated during a September fundraising event in New York City hosted by comedian Bill Cosby and attended by Mayor Alvin Brown will be returned, according to his reelection campaign.

Related: NBC cancels planned Cosby sitcom

A spokesperson with Mayor Brown's reelection campaign told First Coast News it will return approximately $19,100 to donors who donated to the "Taking Jacksonville to the Next Level" committee two months ago.

full article: http://www.firstcoastnews.com/story/news/local/2014/11/20/bill-cosby-jacksonville-mayor-alvin-brown/70029362/

Ouch. Brown missed a key budget meeting to go to that.

[spuwho]

I think what I-10 is saying these women probably started with consensual sex at first, when no roles or professional advancement came, rejected his advances and assault may have been involved.

Bowman says she was drugged the first time, but may have thought she drank too much when she woke up.

I have seen this happen to college age girls before.

[peestandingup]

I think what I-10 is saying these women probably started with consensual sex at first, when no roles or professional advancement came, rejected his advances and assault may have been involved.

Bowman says she was drugged the first time, but may have thought she drank too much when she woke up.

I have seen this happen to college age girls before.

Possibly. I have no doubt he's a womanizing scumbag, but just saying you took a handful of drugs you were offered in a public place, drank, etc because he was a "big powerful scary man" doesn't really cut it as being "drugged" (which implies being slipped something). Sounds like a lot of these women made bad regrettable decisions early in life & are playing victim just to get something out of it.

I'm just saying, "rape" is a pretty strong word & seems like its being stretched a bit with some of these allegations. That kind of stuff happens a LOT, indeed as does real legitimate rape. So there's a line between forceable rape, and "I was out partying, drinking & doing drugs, met a guy & we had sex that I don't totally remember but feel bad about so I'm gonna say he raped me." How many of us have had sex under those exact same circumstances? I know I have. Maybe not hard drugs, but def both parties drunk.

That's not to say any of this is good or that he didn't forcibly take it upon himself to have his way with women being closed doors, which we'll likely never know. Just not to be so quick to label someone a rapist when there's no real evidence they did. Was there ever a case where someone who was with him went to the Doctor & got a rape kit or went straight to the police afterwards? Legitimately asking.

[funwithteeth]

Possibly. I have no doubt he's a womanizing scumbag, but just saying you took a handful of drugs you were offered in a public place, drank, etc because he was a "big powerful scary man" doesn't really cut it as being "drugged" (which implies being slipped something). Sounds like a lot of these women made bad regrettable decisions early in life & are playing victim just to get something out of it.

This bears no relation to Bowman's account. It also shows your willingness to discredit someone claiming rape while giving the benefit of the doubt to the accused.

The rest of your post attempts to do a thorough job of trivializing something awful. It's a common attitude rape victims encounter when they try to report what happened to them and a big reason why it's so often underreported.

[Tacachale]

Possibly. I have no doubt he's a womanizing scumbag, but just saying you took a handful of drugs you were offered in a public place, drank, etc because he was a "big powerful scary man" doesn't really cut it as being "drugged" (which implies being slipped something). Sounds like a lot of these women made bad regrettable decisions early in life & are playing victim just to get something out of it.

This bears no relation to Bowman's account. It also shows your willingness to discredit someone claiming rape while giving the benefit of the doubt to the accused.

The rest of your post attempts to do a thorough job of trivializing something awful. It's a common attitude rape victims encounter when they try to report what happened to them and a big reason why it's so often underreported.

This.

[peestandingup]

Possibly. I have no doubt he's a womanizing scumbag, but just saying you took a handful of drugs you were offered in a public place, drank, etc because he was a "big powerful scary man" doesn't really cut it as being "drugged" (which implies being slipped something). Sounds like a lot of these women made bad regrettable decisions early in life & are playing victim just to get something out of it.

It also shows your willingness to discredit someone claiming rape while giving the benefit of the doubt to the accused.

Um, no. It shows if you're accused of a crime, you're considered innocent until proven guilty. Which, you know, is kinda sorta the principle of our entire system of law. Or do you want to go ahead & throw him in the gallows because of what someone said?

I'm not siding with anyone & honestly couldn't care less what happens to Mr Cosby. Just saying its not fair to accuse someone of something they may or may not have done. Or are we just gonna blindly white knight this one?? That's fine if we are & anything less will be looked upon with total disgust, just lemme know guys & I'll stay out of it.

[peestandingup]

This bears no relation to Bowman's account. It also shows your willingness to discredit someone claiming rape while giving the benefit of the doubt to the accused.

BTW, I was talking about similar accusations from other women. I didn't just make that up.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Therese Serignese said she was 19-years-old when she met Bill Cosby in Las Vegas. That was in 1976.
Cosby was putting on a show at the Hilton.

"He asked me, 'would you like to come see my show?' Of course I would." said Serignese.

She said she ended up at an after party.

Therese said hours later it was just her and Cosby and that's when she says he offered her some pills.

She said, "I took them, didn't know what they were didn't even ask. I just was intimidated I guess and I took them. Then my next memory is feeling drugged and him having sex with me."

Therese said she didn't know how she got home but remembers telling her mother the next day.

"She just looked at me and said 'maybe he'll take care of you,' " Sherignese said.

http://www.wptv.com/news/region-c-palm-beach-county/west-palm-beach/local-woman-accuses-cosby-of-drugging-raping-her

[spuwho]

Cosby's attorney scolds the media..."stop vilifying my client, these accusations are absurd"

Per People:

While Bill Cosby was greeted with a standing ovation at a Florida event Friday – one of the few in recent days that wasn't cancelled in light of the mounting allegations against him – his attorney in Hollywood lashed out at the media for publicizing "decades-old events" that are "completely illogical."

"The new, never-before-heard claims from women who have come forward in the past two weeks with unsubstantiated, fantastical stories about things they say occurred 30, 40 or even 50 years ago have escalated past the point of absurdity," said attorney Martin Singer in a statement.

"These brand new claims about alleged decades-old events are becoming increasingly ridiculous, and it is completely illogical that so many people would have said nothing, done nothing and made no reports to law enforcement or asserted civil claims if they thought they had been assaulted over a span of so many years.

"Lawsuits are filed against people in the public eye every day," Singer continued. "There has never been a shortage of lawyers willing to represent people with claims against rich, powerful men, so it makes no sense that not one of these new women who just came forward for the first time now ever asserted a legal claim back at the time they allege dthey had been sexually assaulted. This situation is an unprecedented example of the media's breakneck rush to run stories without any corroboration or adherence to traditional journalistic standards ... It is long past time for this media villification of Mr. Cosby to stop."

Though Cosby's future job prospects look increasingly grim – AP reports that several more venues in Oklahoma, Nevada, Illinois and Arizona, among others, announced they were scrapping plans to host his concerts – the 77-year-old comedian broke his silence Friday by telling a Florida newspaper that he shouldn't have to defend himself against "innuendos."

"I know people are tired of me not saying anything," Cosby told the newspaper. "People should fact check. People shouldn't have to go through that and shouldn't answer to innuendos."

As accusers continued to surface – the most recent one is Beth Ferrier, though her accusations aren't new; she was Jane Doe #5 in Andrea Constand's 2006 civil suit against Cosby – the comedian took the stage in Melbourne, Florida, and was met with a standing ovation. (Before the show began, a single photo of Cosby with the late Nelson Mandela was projected on the stage).

During his 90-minute show (in which he wore a sweatshirt that read "HELLO FRIEND," Cosby waxed on about his youth – how he once stole money from the church offering plate to buy ice cream and how his uncle was the one to explain where babies came from.

Though a local radio station offered pay ticketgoers to heckle Cosby, there were no disruptions during the show other than one fan yelling, "We love you Bill Cosby!"

Cosby never once mentioned the scandal.

It's unclear what toll, if any, the allegations have affected Cosby financially. Though NBC scrapped a deal to develop a family comedy with him and Netflix postponed a planned comedy special, a great deal of Cosby's wealth was amassed from his run on NBC's The Cosby Show, which provided the comedian with six-figure salary on a weekly basis along with a share of the profits when the show went into syndication.

Even before the scandal broke, Cosby was reaping financial awards from comedy concerts and commencement speeches, which fetch him up to $100,000 per appearance, according to one course close to the comedian. Still, it seems certain that days of receiving big TV paychecks are over.

"His career is over. It's done," says one Hollywood crisis expert. "There's no salvation from this. Why would anybody want to go into business with this guy now?"

[funwithteeth]

Possibly. I have no doubt he's a womanizing scumbag, but just saying you took a handful of drugs you were offered in a public place, drank, etc because he was a "big powerful scary man" doesn't really cut it as being "drugged" (which implies being slipped something). Sounds like a lot of these women made bad regrettable decisions early in life & are playing victim just to get something out of it.

It also shows your willingness to discredit someone claiming rape while giving the benefit of the doubt to the accused.

Um, no. It shows if you're accused of a crime, you're considered innocent until proven guilty. Which, you know, is kinda sorta the principle of our entire system of law.

Oh? Did you know due process applies to both the accuser and the accused? Maybe you don't because you hedge your own claims with "kinda sorta." Because this:

I have no doubt he's a womanizing scumbag, but just saying you took a handful of drugs you were offered in a public place, drank, etc because he was a "big powerful scary man" doesn't really cut it as being "drugged" (which implies being slipped something). Sounds like a lot of these women made bad regrettable decisions early in life & are playing victim just to get something out of it.

is definitely an attempt to discredit the accusers without the benefit of any facts yourself. You—along with countless other people in equally countless situations—are all too happy to put the blame on the accuser. "Well, they must have done something wrong and now they're saying this" is a short trip from "well, if they hadn't have been wearing a short skirt...."

I'm not siding with anyone & honestly couldn't care less what happens to Mr Cosby.

You are siding against the accusers. I'm willing to believe you don't care about Cosby, however.

Just saying its not fair to accuse someone of something they may or may not have done.

What? I invite you to go back and point out where I said in this thread Bill Cosby is a rapist. I simply pointed out that dozens of accusations is not a good look on him, unless you happen to believe this a conspiracy by dozens of women out to get him.

Or are we just gonna blindly white knight this one?? That's fine if we are & anything less will be looked upon with total disgust, just lemme know guys & I'll stay out of it.

I take offense to "blindly" because I've definitely put some thought into this while your own posts are purely reactionary.

[peestandingup]

You are siding against the accusers. I'm willing to believe you don't care about Cosby, however.

No, I'm really not. Im siding with burden of proof. No, I don't care about Cosby. At all. I think he's a real shit bag in many ways if you wanna know the truth.

What? I invite you to go back and point out where I said in this thread Bill Cosby is a rapist.

You heavily implied it. "Ken, the women kept quiet for as long as they did because of fear and intimidation. I assume each one of them assumed they were the only one this happened to; by themselves none of them had the strength to fight back against someone so rich and powerful."

I take offense to "blindly" because I've definitely put some thought into this while your own posts are purely reactionary.

So have I, which is why I said you can't automatically label someone a rapist if there's really no proof that they did so. That's pretty messed up. All that's there is a bunch of stories coming out at once similar to the one I linked to (is that what we're calling "rape" now?). And you are white knighting because you've already made up your mind based on decades old stories with no proof just because "women" and "rape" were used in the same sentence. What's more believable, that he was a rapist for decades involving dozens of women that never got caught, never got reported, etc, or that he was a famous womanizer with money who had a bunch of flings on the side that ended badly? Either is possible, or it could be somewhere in the middle. But like I said, prove it & I'll call him a rapist all day long.

I'm not saying he didn't do it & trying to belittle anyone or their story, just that no one should jump on the Cos hate bandwagon (or be bullied into doing so) without anything real to go on. If that's the case, then anyone could just say anything about anyone if they want to take them down. All you have to do is get it in the news & they're done.

[spuwho]

Per MailOnline:

Law & Order actress details Bill Cosby's attempted sexual assault of her while working on The Cosby Show - and claims he did drug at least one woman on set

Michelle Hurd, the actor known for her work on Law & Order: SVU and Gossip Girl has come forward to share her story about Bill Cosby.

- Hurd says Cosby touched her inappropriately and asked that she eat lunch with him in his dressing room when she worked on The Cosby Show
- She says Cosby told her to 'NEVER tell anyone what they did together'
- Then, one night he asked her to shower at his apartment, but she declined
- Hurd eventually spoke with another woman who said she woke up at Cosby's apartment drugged one morning
- This as Cosby's lawyer is calling the growing number of allegations against the actor 'increasingly ridiculous' and 'completely illogical'

Another actor has come forward to accuse Bill Cosby of attempted sexual assault.

Michelle Hurd, the actress best known for her roles on Low & Order: SVU and Gossip Girl, says she was a stand-in on the set of The Cosby Show when Cosby started acting increasingly inappropriate around her, saying, 'NEVER tell anyone what we [do] together.'

What's more, she states that at least one person on set woke up at his apartment drugged on one occasion.



'LOOK, I wasn't going to say anything, but I can't believe some of the things i've been reading, SO here is MY personal experience,' she begins.

'I did stand-in work on The Cosby show back in the day and YES, Bill Cosby was VERY inappropriate with me.'

She goes on to discuss being touched in ways she did not like and being asked to eat lunch with him in his dressing room.

Then, things got to be too much for Hurd.

'I dodged the ultimate bullet with him when he asked me to come to his house, take a shower so we could blow dry my hair and see what it looked like straightened,' she says.

'At that point my own red flags went off and I told him, "No, I'll just come to work tomorrow with my hair straightened".'

That unfortunately was not the case for another actress who Hurd began trading stories with on set.

'Turns out he was doing the same thing to her, almost by the numbers, BUT, she did go to his house and because I will not name her, and it is her story to tell, all I'll say is she awoke, after being drugged, vomited, and then Cosby told her there's a cab waiting for you outside.'

Hurd, who is married to fellow actor Garret Dillahunt and so private that no one even knows their wedding date, then stresses that she has no reason whatsoever to lie about what happened.

Meanwhile, Cosby's laywer, Martin Singer, has released a statement calling recent rape allegations 'increasingly ridiculous' and 'completely illogical.'

'This situation is an unprecedented example of the media's breakneck rush to run stories without any corroboration or adherence to traditional journalistic standards,' says Singer.

'Over and over again, we have refuted these new unsubstantiated stories with documentary evidence, only to have a new uncorroborated story crop up out of the woodwork. When will it end?'

He then closes by saying, 'It is long past time for this media vilification of Mr. Cosby to stop.'

Ten women have come forward in the last month saying they were attacked by Cosby, with Renita Chaney Hill, Louisa Moritz and Andrea Leslie the latest additions.

Four of the women claim they were teenagers at the time.

One of the accusers is supermodel Janice Dickinson, who claims that during a dinner in 1982 the actor gave her a pill and when she woke up he was on top of her.

Another four ladies; Barbara Bowman, Joan Tarshis, Tamara Green and Therese Serignese have all shared remarkably similar stories in which they claim to have shared a drink or a pill with Cosby and then woken up after or while they say he was sexually assaulting them.

Also coming forward recently is Carla Ferrigno, wife of Incredible Hulk star Lou Ferrigno, who says Cosby tried to sexually assault her during a gathering at his house in 1967.

What's more, Cosby allegedly tried to use a friend to help court Ferrigno, and allegedly made his move on the former Playboy Bunny just moments after his own wife, Camille, left the room.

When asked to speak about these claims in an AP interview, Cosby said he had 'no response' and 'no comment.'

These allegations are already having a major impact on his work however, with Netflix postponing the airing of his new comedy special, Bill Cosby 77, which was due to air the day after Thanksgiving, and NBC pulling the plug on a comedy project they were developing with the Cosby Show star.

TV Land has also announced they will no longer air reruns of The Cosby Show on the network.

Despite all this, Cosby did perform in the Bahamas on Thursday and in Florida on Friday.

His upcoming standup shows in Las Vegas and Arizona have however been cancelled.

[spuwho]

The common pattern here is that some of the victims confess to have had consensual relations with Cosby before they bolted. Some of them after offers of "professional advancement" were made. The largest common thread though is the use of drugs to ply them. (13) Jane Does is a lot of testimony to offer and the fact that so many were found and it took several years to reach the press is a bit weird.

THE WOMEN WHO SAY THEY WERE ATTACKED BY COSBY

Andrea Constand - A Temple University employee, she claimed in 2006 that Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted her in his Philadelphia-area mansion two years earlier. Cosby eventually settled this suit out of court as the prosecution said they had 13 Jane Does who would testify Cosby did the same to them in the past.

Barbara Bowman - Bowman told MailOnline that Cosby raped and drugged her back in 1985 when she was a 17-year-old aspiring actress. Bowman was one of the 13 Jane Does in the 2006 trial against Cosby.

Joan Tarshis - Tarshis claimed that she was just 19-years-old when Cosby drugged and raped her twice in Hollywood back in 1969 while she was working as a writer for him.

Janice Dickinson - The supermodel said in an interview that Cosby asked her to come to Lake Tahoe and talk about a television role in 1982, but ended up drugging and raping her.

Tamara Green - Green, who first came forward in 2005 told MailOnline that she was an aspiring actress in the 1970s when Cosby gave her pills and pretended to care for her while she had the flu, but instead sexually assaulted her.

Therese Serignese - Also one of the 13 Jane Does, she says she was 19 when Cosby drugged and raped her in Las Vegas after one of his shows.

Louisa Moritz - She accused Cosby of sexual assault, saying he once forced her into oral sex, backstage at The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in 1971, and implied he would further her career if she went through with it.

Linda Joy Traitz - She said earlier this week that she was just 19 when Cosby drove her out to a beach and tried to get her to take pills to relax, before becoming 'sexually aggressive'. Traitz, of Hallandale Beach, Florida, has been charged in the past with trafficking pills. Cosby's attorney, Marty Singer, is trying to use Traitz's past to discredit her claims against his client.

Beth Ferrier - Beth Ferrier claims she had relationship with Cosby in the mid-1980s. She claims that she awoke in her car with her clothes in disarray and not remembering what had happened. Ferrier has claimed that he drugged her coffee.

Carla Ferrigno - The wife of Incredible Hulk star Lou Ferrigno, claims Cosby tried to sexually assault her during a gathering at his house in 1967. What's more, Cosby allegedly tried to use a friend to help court Ferrigno, and allegedly made his move on the former Playboy Bunny just moments after his own wife, Camille, left the room.

Andrea Leslie - The former model-actress claims that Cosby forced her to masturbate him in his Vegas hotel suite after giving her a strong drink in 1992.