Hey, can I bring up the Bill Cosby matter again? Cosby probably owes Donald Trump many thanks for grabbing all the headlines away but recently, this caught my eye. In the New Yorker recently, Jeffrey Toobin was listing some of the big legal stories to follow in 2016. This was one of them…
The comedian's reputation has been destroyed in the course of 2015, as dozens (dozens!) of women came forward to say that he had drugged and sexually assaulted them. Cosby's lawyers have denied most of the charges, when they have addressed them at all. But, in 2016, Cosby will suffer a lot more than bad publicity. A criminal investigation and multiple civil lawsuits are moving forward against him. The statute of limitations has been Cosby's ally throughout his legal troubles, but the number and magnitude of the allegations should overwhelm him this year. It's a good guess that Cosby will end 2016 in prison — and that he will end his life destitute.
Toobin's no dummy but prison and poverty sure have never seemed likely or even possible to me since the revelations started. Regarding the latter, Cosby has a net worth that's been estimated at $400 million. I would think you could pay a helluva lot of legal fees and outta-court settlements and maybe even endure one big loss to Gloria Allred and still have a nice chunk of that wad left over. But perhaps not.
As for what would land him behind bars, I'm assuming Toobin is thinking of the Chloe Goins matter. Her allegations of rape against Cosby apparently are not mooted by the Statute of Limitations but for a while, legal analysts were speculating that some of her own problems, including a reported arrest for prostitution, would cloud that matter and allow Cosby to skate by. Does Toobin now think that will not be the case? Does he think that public outrage over all the crimes that cannot be prosecuted will create a tsunami that will force the Goins case to go against Bill?
I have a hard time seeing all this happening but if Jeffrey Toobin thinks it is — well, maybe…