World renowned entertainer, Bill Cosby has been freed after a Pennsylvania Apeal Court overturned the sexual assault case levelled against him in the tick of the #MeToo movement.
Cosby had served over twos after being convicted of sexual assault during the #Metoo era. In an opionion written by Justice David Wecht at the time, Associated Press said that 83-year-old Cosby could not be charged in the case because of a previous agreement with a prosecutor.
Former Federal Prosecutor, Neama Rahman told the Daily Beast that, “Everyone’s mind is blown right now. This is extremely rare. This is unprecedented.”
The entertainer was convicted on three counts of sexual assault in April 2018 and sentenced to 3 to 10 years in State prison in September.
The charges are linked to a 2004 incident in which he was accused of drugging and assaulting Andrea Constand, an operations director for women’s basketball at Temple University.
She testified that Cosby, who served on Temple’s board of trustees, had given her a pill that made her unable to control her limbs, and that he violated her at his estate in the Philadelphia suburbs.
Dozens of women have alleged Cosby sexually assaulted them, dating back as far as the 1960s, when Cosby was a rising young comedian and co-star of the TV program “I Spy.” Cosby’s early stardom made him a breakthrough figure, one of the first Black performers to achieve mass popularity.
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Bill Cosby
American retired stand-up comedian, actor, and author