Bill Cosby was found guilty on all counts of aggravated indecent assault on Thursday (April 26) at the Montgomery County Courthouse, according to the New York Times.
A jury of seven men and five women sealed Cosby’s fate for his assault on former Temple University employee Andrea Constand, who the once beloved actor had previously mentored.
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Each felonious count — penetration with lack of consent, penetration while unconscious and penetration after administering an intoxicant — carries up to 10 years in prison. Consequently, the 80-year-old comedian could spend his remaining years behind bars.
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Following the verdict, Judge Steven T. O’Neill told the jurors it was “an extraordinarily difficult case” and added, “You have sacrificed much, but you have sacrificed in the service of justice.”
CNN reports that after the verdict was read, Cosby stood up and called prosecutor Kevin Steele an “asshole” as Steele was telling Judge O’Neill he thought his bail should be revoked for being a flight risk. Cosby reportedly overheard Steele telling the judge Cosby had a private plane and could go anywhere in the world.
Cosby shouted, “He doesn’t have a private plane, you asshole.”
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On the defense side, the most damning foreshadowing of the verdict was that Tom Mesereau, Cosby’s attorney actually fell asleep with his “mouth open” as Judge O’Neill read long accounts of Cosby’s testimony regarding Quaaludes and the sexual nature of his relationship with Constand.
Multiple women have accused the former sitcom dad — Dr. Heathcliff Huxtable — of similar violations. Last summer, his first trial ended with a deadlocked jury because of two not guilty hold-outs.
Over the years, Cosby has notoriously taken an anti-Hop Hop stance. In 2008, Mr. Pudding Pops was reportedly working on a Hip Hop-inspired album called Bill Cosby Presents the Cosnarati: State of Emergency. In an interview with Today, he clarified, “I do not rap on any of these things. I wouldn’t know how to fix my mouth to say some of the words.”
He added the Hip Hop he was hearing at the time was “profane and degrading,” and that his album was “the opposite of what I think is the profanity for no particular reason, the misogyny for no particular reason. It really looks at the frustration and the anger that a young man may have.”
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Bill Cosby Presents the Cosnarati: State of Emergency was released in 2009.
Reactions to his conviction were mixed on social media. Some remember Cosby as the fun-loving, morally sound father on The Cosby Show while others view him as a malicious predator. One Twitter user even wanted to remind people Kanye West once defended him.
Celebrities and Hip Hop artists alike took to Twitter to chime in.
Check out their reactions below.
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