Of Course There's a Trump Connection to Cosby Being Sprung From Jail

Almost 60 women accused Bill Cosby of sexual misconduct. Think about that. When he was found guilty, they all breathed, somewhat, a sigh of relief. At the time, it looked like Cosby would spend the rest of his life in prison.

Today, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has overturned Cosby's guilty verdict. He's a free man at 83 years old. How must his accusers feel today? It's as if their words, allegations, and cries for justice were flat-out ignored. Watching all the coverage surrounding this shocking news, I can literally see the pain in the eyes of the female anchors and legal analysts reporting and talking about what happened. Cosby's imminent release is an affront to women and sexual assault victims everywhere.

The anger is palpable. And of course everything that sparks anger in this country can usually be tied back to Donald Trump in one way or another. Bruce Castor, who was one of the few attorneys in the entire country willing to represent Trump during his second impeachment trial, has a hand in Cosby's ticket to freedom.

Castor in 2005 was the Montgomery County, Pa., district attorney who astonishingly declined to prosecute Cosby, citing "insufficient credible and admissible evidence" on the charges he was presented. And, at the time, Castor had also struck what can only be described as an auspicious deal with Cosby's attorney to not bring criminal charges.

It just stands to reason that Castor would go on to represent another accused sexual predator in Trump. Cumulatively, how do all of these dozens of women feel about watching Cosby and Trump roam free partly because of one man? The bravery of all of these women continues to be belittled, shunned, and ignored.

One of those women who would not be ignored was Andrea Constand, whose case led to a jury finding Bill Cosby guilty of sexual assault. She must be beyond stunned about Cosby's release.

Constand, as we reported several years ago, came out in 2015 as a lesbian, which clearly challenged Cosby's assertion that he knew how to read the desires of the women he assaulted. The messed-up manipulative mind and motives of this madman know no bounds. How does Cosby read a lesbian as having interest in a man? If that alone doesn't indicate the deceit of Cosby, what else do you need?

As we wrote, "The police report [Constand] filed at the time of the rape indicated that although he'd made overtures to her, she had no interest in a 'romantic relationship' with him but that she thought of him as a 'mentor' with whom she had a 'sincere friendship.'"

Constand, a coach and former professional basketball player, was an employee of the basketball program at Temple University, which is Cosby's alma mater. When she told her story to the jury, you could have heard a pin drop in the courtroom. It was incredibly sincere and overwhelmingly convincing. It was the centerpiece of the evidence that the jury heard, and jurors later found him guilty on three counts of drugging and sexually assaulting her.

The reason behind the Pennsylvania Supreme Court throwing out Cosby's conviction was a deposition he gave about the case. It was a very small part of the prosecution's case but verification nonetheless that Cosby was a sinister, habitual assaulter.

Prosecutors were scrupulous in providing a litany of other extensive detail about Cosby's behavior. For all intents and purposes, they didn't need to hear from Cosby via that video deposition. Ironically, the issue around his testimony is the issue at hand and the reason he's been set free. It's as if Cosby is trying to have the last word in his effort to talk his way out of his crime.

All of the alleged crimes against him, based on the stories from the 60-plus women, all sound exactly the same, which is terrifying and downright irrefutable. Constand took that same story, repeated over and over and over again, to court. She first filed her civil suit against Cosby in 2005, in which she claimed he drugged and raped her (that same horrid tale) in 2004. The case ended in a settlement and was bound by a confidentiality agreement.

Cosby's attorneys accused her at the time of breaking the agreement. And yet, despite Cosby's attempts to silence her through his attorneys, she held her line and fought back. At the time, Constand had the only case for which the statute of limitations had not run out, which is why her case proceeded.

During the trial, Constand testified, saying, "I was not able to do a thing to fight back." But she did in the courtroom, and she did for all those women, who all said the same thing and couldn't fight back in a court of law because their cases didn't qualify. It seems cruel, but Pennsylvania law says that for adult rape or sexual assault civil suits, a person has two years from the date of injury to file.

That law needs to be changed along with the many others that put severe limitations on a person's right to file suit in the case of rape. These women, along with Constand, were forced to live with these sickening memories of Cosby's atrocious behavior for years. He's rich, powerful, well-connected, able to tap the best and brightest attorneys. How could they even think to bring a case against him with all that against them from the get-go?

We need to stop and think about how many times these women have replayed their encounters with Cosby. How many times did they want to make sure he was punished but felt powerless to even attempt to take him on? How many times have they been obsessed over what they should do? How can they get justice? How to take down this powerful man?

All of these feelings, thoughts, questions, all of the trauma, all of the tears, the sadness, the depression, the helplessness, the loneliness, the fear, the anxiety, the sleepless nights, the devastation, the humiliation, all of this came roaring back today for Cosby's victims.

It's ironic that Cosby was in prison for three years, almost as if some sort of statute of limitations remarkably worked in his favor again so he could avoid the rest of his imprisonment. And that's just it. When you're rich, famous, and have the upper hand, somehow, someway, somewhere, somebody gets you off, shrewdly, around a technicality. That's what this was, and sinisterly it's related to another rich guy who remains out of prison. Cosby + Trump + Castor = Immoral.

I'm certain Constand and all the other women associated with Cosby feel cheated that he has not served enough time to truly pay for his immorality. I saw something on social media to the effect of "Well, he's 83 and blind, so he can't do harm anymore." My, how blind that statement is. Cosby's harm lives daily in the lives of over 60 women he allegedly and seemingly assaulted. Cosby doesn't sense the desires of women. He destroys them. And, he's done it again.

John Casey is editor at large for The Advocate.