Once-beloved actor and comedian, Bill Cosby, was recently slapped with a three to ten year prison sentence after being found guilty of sexually assaulting Andrea Constand 14 years ago in his home.
Constand, the former director of operations for Temple University’s women’s basketball team, was one of the 60 women that the now 81-year-old allegedly preyed upon when younger. The 31-year-old recalled the traumatic abuse Cosby had put her through in 2004, an experience that forever scarred her. Cosby and Constand initially met through a mutual friend. They became friendly over the course of the following two years, and when Cosby invited her to his house for a discussion about business matters, she gladly accepted. She, like much of America, looked up to the TV star as a role model and mentor. Little did she know that their get-together would take an awful and unexpected turn.
She testified about that night that she had been drugged with what Cosby told her was herbal medication. She later discovered it was in fact Benadryl that was used to incapacitate her. It weakened her ability to move or verbally object as Cosby began to inappropriately touch and assault his victim.
This was all done without her consent, as Constand had been in a committed relationship with a woman at that time. Her inability to shake off the memories of that night has haunted her over the years. Vivid nightmares and screaming in the middle of the night had become a norm for her. Her mother noted a visible downturn in her daughter’s personality and social life.
Her feeling of powerlessness has lingered long after the crime. “The shame was overwhelming,” she wrote. “Self-doubt and confusion kept me from turning to my family or friends as I normally did. I felt completely alone, unable to trust anyone, including myself. I couldn’t talk, eat, sleep or socialize.” And when she tried to do something about it, Cosby’s legal team’s response was swift and furious. “It was meant to frighten and intimidate, and it worked,” she said to IN TOUCH WEEKLY.
With Cosby’s incarceration now a reality, Constand can now sleep better at night knowing that his days of assaulting women are over. He has been serving time at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility in Eagleville, Pennsylvania since Sept. 28, 2018. Justice has, finally, been served.
When asked about Bill Cosby’s sentencing, Queens College junior Johnny Smith, majoring in English, said: “Three to ten years is a joke! Had I been the judge, I would’ve thrown him in the jail for the rest of his life.”
Smith isn’t the only one that felt that his sentencing was too light, as fellow junior English major, Anna Costa, noted, “Had he not been as old as he is, I bet he would’ve been serving more time now. The judge probably took pity on him.”
The sentencing has ruined the way Americans view “America’s Dad,” about which sophomore and computer science major Gabriella Sanders commented, “I can never look at Bill Cosby the same way. He brought shame to his entire family and professional legacy. That’s just unfortunate, because I grew up watching his show, and now I can’t think of that show without thinking about those poor women he hurt.”
“I 100% believed it when I first heard about the allegations,” Francisco Lahoz, a senior majoring in anthropology, said. I tend to believe the victim anyway.” Constand has our limitless respect for her bravery in coming forward. It is up to us, the people, to believe the victims of sexual assault, so that other victims will gain the confidence to come forward with their own sad, but very important, stories to tell.
