Bill Cosby: Timeline of his fall from ‘America’s Dad’ to his release from prison
Bill Cosby will be released from prison Wednesday after the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania overturned his 2018 sexual assault conviction.
Cosby had been sentenced to three to 10 years in state prison for allegedly drugging and sexually assaulting former Temple University employee Andrea Constand in 2004. Despite the deluge of allegations against him, Cosby has always maintained that he never engaged in non-consensual sex. Here’s a look back at the more than decade-long saga that led to the downfall of the man known to many as “America’s dad.”
Mid-January to mid-February 2004 Andrea Constand says Cosby sexually assaulted her at his home in Cheltenham Township in Montgomery, Pennsylvania. Though now convicted, he maintains his innocence.
March 31, 2004 Constand leaves her position as director of operations for Temple University’s women’s basketball team and returns to her hometown in Canada.
May 17, 2004 Cosby’s fiery speech about black America at an NAACP awards ceremony leads to a speaking tour dubbed “A Call Out With Bill Cosby” at college campuses and churches nationwide.
Jan. 13, 2005 After experiencing nightmares and a “flashback” that triggered her memory, Constand first tells her mother that Cosby assaulted her, according to court documents.
Jan. 22, 2005 Constand files a police report with the Durham Regional Police outside Toronto, sparking a criminal investigation by Montgomery County detectives in Cheltenham.
January 2005 At his attorney’s midtown Manhattan law office, Cosby is interviewed by Cheltenham Police Chief John Norris, who later tells Vanity Fair that Cosby was “cooperative, congenial … He came in wearing the typical Cosby sweater. I was asking the question, and I thought [Cosby] was a gentleman. I didn’t think he was evasive. He answered every question I put to him. He said it was a consensual sexual encounter. That summarizes it.”
Feb. 10, 2005 Tamara Green says in a television interview that Constand’s decision to file a police report against Cosby, sparking a very public criminal investigation, prompted her to come forward with a similar allegation from the 1970s.
Feb. 17, 2005 Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce Castor Jr. issued a press release announcing his decision not to criminally prosecute Cosby.
March 2005 Constand files a civil lawsuit against Cosby. She includes depositions from 13 other women, who say they were sexually assaulted by Cosby over the years, and lists them as potential witnesses. Cosby later said in a deposition that his sexual encounter with Constand was consensual and that the only drug he gave her was Benadryl.
June 23, 2005 Beth Ferrier, known in court papers as Jane Doe No. 5, reveals her identity to The Philadelphia Daily News. She alleges that during the course of what she describes as a brief affair with Cosby in 1984 when she was modeling, he drugged her coffee and sexually assaulted her.
Fall 2005 to 2006: During four days of depositions by Constand’s attorneys, Cosby testifies the following: He got drugs to give women for sex, he gave The National Enquirer interview in 2005 to stop Ferrier’s previously undisclosed sexual assault allegation from surfacing, he hid the affairs from his wife, and he routed payments to multiple women.
June 6, 2006 In a radio interview with Howard Stern, model Janice Dickenson calls Cosby “a bad guy” who “preys on women.”
June 9, 2006 Barbara Bowman is named in Philadelphia magazine as one of the women giving testimony in support of Constand’s civil lawsuit against Cosby.
Nov. 8, 2006 Constand’s civil lawsuit against Cosby is settled for more than $3 million.
Oct. 16, 2014 Comedian Hannibal Buress makes the joke heard around the world. Performing in Cosby’s hometown of Philadelphia, he mocks Cosby’s public persona. “Pull your pants up, black people — I was on TV in the ’80s,” Buress said in the bit. “Yeah, but you rape women, Bill Cosby, so turn the crazy down a couple notches.”
Nov. 10, 2014 Nearly a month after the Buress routine goes viral, prompting fresh accusations, Cosby’s public relations team begins a concerted effort to counter the mountain of negative press and social media censure pinballing through cyberspace and launches an online meme generator. In an effort to creatively engage fans online, Cosby posts an invitation on Twitter, writing, “Meme me.” Twitter responds with references to the rape claims.
Nov. 13, 2014 Bowman, who first publicly accused Cosby of sexual assault in 2006 and was a witness in Constand’s lawsuit, wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post titled “Bill Cosby raped me. Why did it take 30 years for people to believe my story?” Two days later, when asked about the charges on NPR’s “Weekend Edition,” Cosby stays silent.
