To the people who have stated “Bill Cosby has done so many good things with his life”, I agree, and I’m really agnostic so far about these allegations. However, just because someone has done many good things, does NOT mean they’re not capable of bad, evil acts as well.
Unfortunately, it is far from the case that only desperate or hardened “career” criminals committed crimes and evil acts. Many rich, famous people appear committed to charity and philanthropy, but then again one could argue that historically, men like Carnegie and Rockefeller likely caused much more misery from their business practices than they alleviated with their later charity work. Though I cannot read their hearts either and perhaps they meant to “atone” for their previous actions, perhaps they only engaged their “good” deeds to gain good PR.
And while Cosby isn’t a robber baron, and has a wholesome public image, that doesn’t say anything about his private life. He does indeed have at least one daughter from an extramarital affair that he admitted to. And I recall that coming up in the 1990s, when the media wasn’t nearly as cut-throat as it is now regarding spreading allegations about bad behavior.
I also recall that the Bill Cosby on TV actually was more wholesome than the Bill Cosby of stand-up (which is true for many other celebs, for example, Ellen D’s true sexuality was no secret among her fans from her stand-up days even though it was papered over for a while after she made it to TV).
A celebrity’s image is just that, an image. Mickey Mantle once had a wholesome public image too; people were shocked by the revelations in “Ball Four” regarding his drinking and womanizing, granted AFAIK no one ever accused him of rape, but he did essentially drink himself to death and was actually separated from his wife when he died.
None of this means Cosby is guilty of anything, but I don’t think his carefully crafted public image really provides any proof that he “isn’t that kind of man”. Even among non-celebrities, many times people with great public reputations turn out to be guilty of sexual sin or worse. (I’ve even read posts from CAF from posters who state they were victims of sexual abuse, but no one ever believed them due to the good reputations of the alleged perpetrators).