Bill Cosby Rape Allegations

Overview

Bill Cosby Rape Allegations refer to a series of sexual assault claims made against comedian Bill Cosby from 16 different women. Following the circulation of a viral stand-up clip in which comedian Hannibal Buress called Cosby a “rapist” in October 2014, several women came forward to provide their account of their alleged assaults.

Background

In January 2000, a police report was filed by actress Lachele Convington, who claimed she was inappropriately groped by Cosby at his home in New York City. The Manhattan district attorney’s office dropped the case after determining no crime had been committed.^[2] In November 2006, Cosby settled a civil lawsuit with former Temple University employee Andrea Constand, who claimed he had drugged and sexually assaulted her in 2004. By the end of the settlement, 13 other women had come forward claiming he had sexually assaulted them.

Notable Developments

Hannibal Buress Stand-Up

In October 2014, comedian Hannibal Buress called Cosby a rapist during a stand-up performance in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in reference to the 2006 lawsuit.

“He gets on TV, ‘Pull your pants up black people, I was on TV in the 80s. I can talk down to you because I had a successful sitcom.’ Yeah, but you rape women, Bill Cosby, so turn the crazy down a couple notches.”

Barbara Bowman’s Allegations

On October 27th, The Daily Mail^[5] published artist Barbara Bowman’s account her experience with Cosby, claiming he drugged and raped her over a two-year period starting when she was 17-years-old in 1985.

“He is a monster. He came at me like a monster. My hope is that others who have experienced sexual abuse will not be intimidated into silence by the famous, rich and powerful. If I can help one victim, then I’ve done my job.”

#CosbyMeme

On November 10th, 2014, Cosby tweeted featuring a photograph of himself with the caption “Happy Monday!” along with a link to a meme generator website inviting Twitter users to make their own Cosby image macros with the hashtag “#CosbyMeme”^[1] (shown below).

Twitter users subsequently began tweeting photos of Cosby with captions referencing assault allegations against the comedian along with the “#CosbyMeme” hashtag (shown below). That day, the original Cosby tweet was deleted.

Additional Allegations

On November 16th, 2014, the entertainment news blog Hollywood Elsewhere^[3] published an account written by journalist Joan Tarshis, who claimed Cosby raped her when she was 19-years-old in 1969. On November 13th, Bowman appeared on CNN, where she discussed her past experiences with Cosby with anchor Don Lemon (shown below, left). On November 18th, Tarshis was interviewed by on CNN by Lemon, who was criticized for asking her if she had considered biting Cosby’s penis (shown below, right).

That day, model Janice Dickinson was interviewed on the entertainment news program Entertainment Today,^[4] where she claimed Cosby sexually assaulted her in 1982 (shown below).

Search Interest

External References