As we go off to press, renowned black comedian Bill Cosby, estimated to have a US$400 million portfolio has been set free.We will try to explain as briefly as possible the confusing situation behind the Pennsylvania Supreme court decision. This letter will help our female readers to appreciate the difference between what is lawful and what is moral.
BY KENNETH MUFUKA
In 2005 Canadian physical trainer Andrea Constand accused Cosby of sexually molesting her. In that case, the prosecutor, wishing to get the matter behind him, made a contract with Cosby not to use the evidence given at that hearing for further prosecution. Constand later walked away with a US$3 million settlement. Nevertheless, Cosby had said some words which could be seen in hindsight as a confession to the charge Constand had brought.
In 2018, Constand renewed the charges once more. The words which Cosby had spoken, which were in a sealed envelope, were recovered and used in a new trial. Surely, the Supreme Court ruled, this action by prosecutors violated the rule of thumb of apparent fairness.
That was strike number one against Constand’s case.
Buoyed by the “Me Too Movement”, more than 20 women volunteered to give evidence. These women had not laid any charges against Cosby before. For reasons of space, only two examples will serve our purpose.
The brother raped Beth Ferrier in 1986, had sex with her under false pretences, which equals to the same thing. Ferrier did not report this matter until 2005.
Beth’s case is heart-rending. She had had relations with Cosby before. But when she cut him off, he decided to have his way anyway by dropping a pill in her drink. “I found myself, the morning after, at the back of a car. My bra was loosed, my clothes were in disarray and I was wet all over,” she said. But please note: That confession was in 2005.
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Patricia Steur was raped in 1978 and again in 1979. She told her story in 2018. Good heavens, White sister, it is not that her story is unbelievable. It is that it should have been reported 40 years ago. And then one does not want to be insensitive. She was raped twice by the same man, in two separate years.
Five women in these women’s situations were allowed to give evidence before a court in 2018.
Surely, the Supreme Court ruled, if they had not laid charges against Cosby, they should not have been called as witnesses. It is common law commonsense. One case has nothing to do with the other.
That was strike number two.
Please, my beloved sisters, there are many cases where women are taken advantage of by men of power and means in the hope of gaining favours in employment in the future. Secondly, these cases of rape come under an assumption of gaining favours in future. If that happens, and the woman invited to a hotel interview in the middle of the night realises that she has been taken advantage of, please dear sisters, the hotel manager must be informed right away.
Brother Cosby is guilty by reason of moral failure. Comedian Arsenio Hall is on record as saying that it was an open secret in Hollywood that Cosby carried in his shirt pocket some kind of valium (muti) to make women sleep.
In one of the legal battles (2018), California feminist legal fighter Gloria Allred was quoted as saying that she wanted one-third of Cosby’s wealth delivered to her on a platter before she dropped charges.
Cosby said: “To hell with you. I will join my brothers in jail.” The assertion there is that Cosby will now come out as a hero. Poor blacks are railroaded into jailhouses all over the US. Rich blacks are beginning to make a mockery of the system. Football player OJ Simpson was being railroaded into a jailhouse when his Harvard lawyers found a big hole in the prosecution’s case.
The prosecution had gone into overdrive by manufacturing evidence (which is common in black cases) by producing a glove which Simpson is supposed to have worn. “If the glove does not fit, you must acquit,” the clever lawyers advised the jury.
It is all about money. Cosby is said to have spent well over US$5 million. If he has US$400 million, that is small change to him.
Ken Mufuka is a Zimbabwean patriot.
