A Lovefraud reader asked me to write about the Bill Cosby scandal. A total of 27 women have publicly come forward to tell their stories of being sexually assaulted by the famous comedian.
A complete list of the women who have accused Bill Cosby of sexual assault, on Slate.com.
As I read the accounts, I kept seeing virtually the same story, over and over.
Many of the women were young models and actresses who claim Cosby made a pretense of offering them career advice. One woman, however, was a 19-year-old waitress who said Cosby offered her a ride home and then assaulted her. Another woman was 19 when Cosby approached her in a gift shop at the Las Vegas Hilton, where he was performing, and invited her backstage. She says she was drugged, and woke up to find him having sex with her in the green room bathroom.
At this point the shocking realization hit me: This could have happened to me.
Atlantic City Magazine
From 1978 through 1982 I was editor of Atlantic City Magazine. It was my first job out of college.
The job sounds more prestigious than it was. Casino gambling had just become legal in New Jersey, and Atlantic City’s first casino opened a few weeks after I graduated from college. Atlantic City Magazine was a startup publication. I was not only the first editor; I was the first employee.
I had majored in magazine journalism in college, and founded a campus magazine. But I think the prime reason I got the job in Atlantic City was because I was in the right place at the right time.
Arranging the Cosby interview
Atlantic City Magazine frequently published interviews with the headline entertainers who performed at the casinos. Sometime around 1980, when I was 24 years old, Bill Cosby, who regularly appeared in Atlantic City, agreed to be interviewed.
I needed to finalize the time and place where our writer would meet the comedian. But Cosby wasn’t available — he was playing tennis with a casino executive. So in this era before cell phones, I drove over to the indoor tennis courts.
After making the arrangements with a casino PR person, I, along with a few others, watched Cosby play tennis.
As the game was coming to an end, Cosby announced that he wanted to go to the famous White House Sub Shop. But he didn’t have a car. So as the casino folks were trying to figure out how to get him to the sub shop, Cosby pointed at me and said, “She’ll take me.”
Driving Bill Cosby
I was astounded. Everybody looked at me, and I said I could take him.
So, when Cosby finished playing tennis, we got into my car. The car was something plain and white that Atlantic City Magazine rented for me — certainly not what I assume the TV star was accustomed to driving in.
I was star struck. During the 15 minutes that it took to drive from the tennis courts to the sub shop, I tried to engage Cosby in conversation. He didn’t say much. But he did spit out the window.
When we arrived at the sub shop, I stopped the car, let him out and drove away.
It never occurred to me to go in with him, be a groupie, order subs, or make sure he got back to the casino. That’s how naive I was.
Dodged a bullet
Later, realizing that I’d let an opportunity to make an important connection slip through my fingers, I berated myself for my stupidity.
But now, after reading the accounts of all the young women who claim that Cosby assaulted them, I can’t help but wonder if the same thing could have happened to me.
Maybe Cosby assumed that I’d go into the White House with him, and drive him back to the casino. Then, perhaps he would have invited me backstage. I know I would not have questioned his intentions. I didn’t understand then that rich, famous, powerful men took advantage of young women.
Had Bill Cosby done the same thing to me that he allegedly did to all those other young women, I know one thing. I would have been severely traumatized.
So perhaps I was lucky that I drove away.
More info:
Everything you need to know about the Bill Cosby scandal, on Time.com
Bill Cosby’s legacy, recast: Accusers speak in detail about sexual assault allegations, on WashingtonPost.com.
I was chewed up and spit out in a ‘classic’ manner and at record speed
I am reading the article on Bill Cosby Deposition and his assertion that “I think I’m a pretty decent reader of people and their emotions in these romantic sexual things, whatever you want to call them,” he said.
As I read, my stomach starts feeling hollow and sick, like a giant black hole in my being. His words, similar to my pedo father. My father thought if I smiled, it meant I LOVED him, as in man/woman love. I was EIGHT. When I was eleven, he came home and tried to kiss me on the LIPS, I struggled and broke loose and he was angry, said I led him on. WHen he tried to embrace me, I couldn’t stand his touch and would not allow him to touch me and again, my father was angry. He felt he had a right to pull me close to him. EEWWUUGGG.
I grew up learning to not flirt or make eye contact, because that meant something sexual… he read it that way…. and Bill Cosby is saying the same thing, that he read these women’s thoughts as wanting sex with him, no matter that THEY said no, and even went to complain to the police that they rejected what Bill called his “wooing”.
There is something wrong in these men’s heads that they see consent and desire when women aren’t thinking that way at all. It’s like a form of nutcase thinking of those stalker guys who think that some actress on tv is giving him special messages. It’s totally BIZARRE.
Bill dismisses EVERY objection that women had, he tells them a pill is Benedryl, but Benedryl does not have a side effect of amnesia, nor does a NORMAL does put you to sleep. Yes it’s makes you sleepy but not knock you out in a minute or two. I think he gave them qualudes and gave them Valium. Both knock people out completely in very short time, a minute or two. And both very used by the “Industry People” in Hollywood.
I had to stop reading the article. It was too much for me. The very idea that he knew what non-verbal cues meant? No matter what the women said? Women who said NO…he learned how to stop them from being able to say no.
He is a MONSTER.
Let’s put some TRUTH out there:
If these women really wanted to have sex with Bill, they wouldn’t want pills. They’d want to remember and cherish every moment.
It took only ONE time for Bill to learn that Quaaludes knock a person out and amnesia is the consequence.
http://www.vulture.com/2015/07/more-cosby-confessions-from-2005-deposition.html
“In their summary of the deposition, the Times reports that Cosby presents himself “as an unapologetic, cavalier playboy, someone who used a combination of fame, apparent concern and powerful sedatives in a calculated pursuit of young women.” The Times also describes Cosby’s manner in discussing these matters as “one of casual indifference,” noting that “the entertainer comes across as alternately annoyed, mocking, occasionally charming and sometimes boastful, often blithely describing sexual encounters in graphic detail.”
I read some comments. One pointed out that Bill wouldn’t have drugged them in order to obtain sex because as a powerful and successful man, there were plenty wanting him.
Yup. True enough. There are SO many women in this world who want one night stands. I know my ex could find a new woman every time he trolled his bait.
But Bill wasn’t looking for sex. Neither was my husband. My ex had me, a willing loving wife. But because a lovefraud predator hates women, they are looking for a victim, not a hookup. Bill learned how Quaaludes work and GAME ON, he had his knockout drug to control women who said NO. Then he had TOTAL control, and the next day, total rejection and discard of the hated woman.
My ex trolled for women every time I argued with him about something unethical he’d done in the community. He punished me by going out and getting someone who wouldn’t object to him. I imagine Bill did the same. Every time he felt anger about someone’s “transgression” against him, he stalked a victim, an object to vent his anger and rage.
And that STUPID argument that others in Hollywood did the same… as if that excuses ANYONE????
“COSBY GOING TO JAIL” That’s what I saw in the checkout stand of the grocery store when I stood in line. The most recent issue of the National Enquirer with a huge headline of “COSBY GOING TO JAIL”. Normally, I never read tabloids much less purchase them but this time I couldn’t resist. In it they had several articles on Cosby, his wife, sexual assaults, etc. then: “EXPOSED! COSBY’S CRONIES WHO ENABLED HIS TWISTED CRIMES!
In the article they profiled 5 people who enabled his crimes:
The Agent: Tom Illius
The Doctor: Mark Saginor
The Pal: Hugh Hefner
The Flunkie: Frank Scotti
The Publicist: David Brokaw
The Agent: Tom Illius, now deceased, was with the William Morris Agency, and responsible for paying off Cosby’s victims.
The Pal: Hugh Hefner was well aware of Cosby’s doping and groping, rather, raping. He’s still alive and currently being investigated by the LAPD. Well, we know Hugh Hefner was complicit in Cosby’s sexual assaults. He’s still alive.
The Flunkie: Frank Scotti delivered monthly payments to women assaulted by Cosby. He’s still alive.
The Publicist: David Brokaw, Issues statements of “no comment”. Brokaw is now Cosby’s only rep outside of his legal team. He’s still alive.
The Doctor: Mark Saginor: Still Alive. I tried Googling him but couldn’t as didn’t know how to spell his name. Thank you National Enquirer for revealing him. So, why isn’t he being investigated as the DOCTOR WHO PRESCRIBED QUAALIDES TO COSBY?
I’ve maintained all along the prosecutors need to haul in these people who knowingly covered up for Cosby all along, especially Cosby’s “personal physician” Dr. Mark Saginor, better known as “Dr. Feelgood”. He got his nickname in the 1980’s, when pill-popping was the Hollywood way to lose weight. His daughter claimed that he prescribed amphetamines, tranquillizers and prescription painkillers from his Beverly Hills clinic. He was the personal physician to Hugh Hefner. He also partied hardy at the Playboy Mansion.
Oh, Hey Bill. I’ve got this great doctor who’ll give you prescriptions for whatever knockout drugs you want to give chicks and then rape.
Bill Cosby, in Deposition, Said Assistants Could Choose Not to Sign Confidentiality Agreements
But the apparent mismatch between Mr. Cosby’s public image and his private life raises the question about whether he needed the agreements more than most.
“We ask them they have a choice,” Mr. Cosby said early on in the deposition.
“And if they don’t sign,” said Dolores M. Troiani, the lawyer for the young woman who had brought the suit. “What happens?”
“We kill them,” Mr. Cosby replied in jest. “No, they just don’t sign.”
Today’s “The Talk” hosts weighed in on Cosby amid new revelations about his evil character. They talked about his narcissism, arrogance, lack of remorse, and YES, the definition of a sociopath. It was a good topic and well presented in getting their audience educated about sociopaths and Cosby’s sociopathic character.
Watch the segment: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVfw7ilWOkI
If you can’t say “NO” does that mean it was consensual? Because these women were so incapacitated, passed out by drugs, fed to them in various drinks and couldn’t tell their trusted supposed mentor, yet sexual perpetrator, “NO” so Cosby read into his twisted, sick assault and arrogant thinking that he could read their “sexual intentions and willingness to have sex with them” to drug these women?
He says that one woman (don’t want to name her name in the deposition) that supposedly she had an orgasm which, in his mind, meant that it was consensual and wanted to reassure her mother because she had an orgasm clearly indicating it was consensual.
Sick, Sick and More Sick!.
knownow.
Look at the logic that says if a person had an orgasm, it meant sex was concentual:
Even see someone tickle another… and that person BEGS them to stop, that they didn’t consent and they want it stop. They are laughing and laughing. Does laughter mean the one who was tickled enjoy the tickling?
I hope you know the answer.
knownow-
If you can’t consent…. the answer is NO!
Even if you give consent, but were tricked into giving your consent, (sexual assault by fraud,) the answer is still NO!
If you give consent but were coerced into consent… guess what the answer is…… NO!!!
Whether or not you had an orgasm has absolutley NOTHING to do with CONSENT at all!
Joyce
“Bill Cosby CLEARLY Doesn’t Understand Consent” reports Ms. Magazine:
“This past weekend, a 10-year old deposition offered stunning new revelations about Bill Cosby’s sexual encounters from the 1970s onward. Obtained by The New York Times, the document is part of a civil suit filed against Cosby by former Temple University employee Andrea Constand, and it shows that Cosby’s understanding of consent is highly questionable—at best.
Constand first met Cosby in the early 2000s, and in 2005 she sued him for drugging and sexually assaulting her. Thirteen other women gave anonymous sworn statements to support Constand’s case, alleging similar experiences with The Cosby Show star. Cosby, however, insisted that Constand was “a liar,” and detailed his allegedly consensual encounter with her.
“I don’t hear her say anything. And I don’t feel her say anything,” Cosby said in the deposition, admitting that he’d given Constand one and a half tablets of Benadryl before the incident. “And so I continue and I go into the area that is somewhere between permission and rejection. I am not stopped.” He also described himself as “a pretty decent reader of people and their emotions in these romantic sexual things, whatever you want to call them,” saying Constand’s nonverbal cues confirmed her consent.
“Nonverbal cues” do not equal a “yes,” and Cosby’s thinking is not only disturbing, it shows that his understanding of consent is way out of whack with legal and social norms.
Earlier this month, the Associated Press uncovered other evidence that Cosby’s ideas about consent are severely lacking. The AP reported that in the ’70s, Cosby obtained prescriptions for quaaludes—a sedative that was also a popular party drug in that era—with the intention of giving them to “young women that [he] wanted to have sex with.”
In the recently released Constand deposition, Cosby describes an incident in Las Vegas in which he gave quaaludes to a woman and then had sex with her. When Constand’s lawyer asked Cosby if he believed the woman was “not in the position to consent to intercourse after you gave her the drug,” Cosby replied, “I don’t know.”
Quaaludes cause relaxation or sleepiness and they can lower a person’s inhibitions (especially when mixed with alcohol), so it is possible that the woman described was incapacitated at the time of her sexual encounter with Cosby. In most states, having sex with someone who is unconscious or otherwise unable to consent is considered sexual assault. And in NEVADA specifically, the legal definition of rape is when Quaaludes cause relaxation or sleepiness and they can lower a person’s inhibitions (especially when mixed “the perpetrator knows or should know that the victim is mentally or physically incapable of resisting or understanding the nature of his or her conduct.”
Take a hint from President Obama, Cosby: “If you give a woman—or a man, for that matter—without his or her knowledge a drug and then have sex with that person without consent, that’s rape,” the president said recently. “I think this country, any civilized country, should have no tolerance for rape.”
More than two dozen women have come forward this year to accuse Cosby of sexual assault over the past four decades, but he has yet to face any criminal charges because the statute of limitations has expired in most cases. Cosby has consistently argued that all of the women he had sexual encounters with were willing partners, but these revelations suggest that his definition of consent is horrifyingly inaccurate.”
Humpty Dumpty (Cosby) sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty (Cosby) had a great fall; all the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put Cosby together again. So much for all the king’s men. Cosby has a new attorney, Monique Presley a woman, actively firing back in a new media PR approach to counter all the recent negative publicity (the truth) exposing him for what he is. Notice that his previous attorneys, who were pretty vocal about his innocence early on, have been quiet especially since the entire deposition was released. Well, let’s take a new tact and get a woman to speak up for the sociopathic serial rapist. Shame on you Monique Presley.