Rape allegations haunt Bill Cosby in the digital age

Nasty allegations have been haunting
one of America's most iconic comedians with a
reputation for moral wholesomeness. For nine
years, Bill Cosby has been accused of sexual
assault by women who say they were the victims.
Cosby has repeatedly said that the allegations are
untrue. And he has never been prosecuted.
But since 2005, a handful of women have made
the claim. This year, those accusations
resurfaced, and on Monday, a seemingly harmless
post to Cosby's confirmed Twitter account turned
them into a social media storm.
In its wake, one of his accusers, Barbara
Bowman, turned to the public once more with an
article in the Washington Post. She
also spoke to CNN's Don Lemon.
Bowman claims she was drugged then
raped, though she said she never saw
drugs.
"I woke up out of a very confused
state not in my clothes." She said she
knew her body had been touched
without her permission. This occurred
several times in the course of their
contact, she said.
She said to CNN that Cosby told her
she had been drunk.
Bowman was 17 back then in 1985,
an aspiring actress, and was in a
mentoring relationship with Cosby, she
said.
She spent time in his home, which
included dinners with the star.
Despite what she said was happening to her, she
kept coming back. And Cosby and her agent
financed her apartment in addition to supporting
her acting ambitions, she said.
She was afraid to talk to her agent about her
concerns, and she felt Cosby's influence over her
was too powerful.
"I was terrified of him," she said.
"As a teenager, I tried to convince myself I had
imagined it. I even tried to rationalize it: Bill
Cosby was going to make me a star and this was
part of the deal," she wrote in her Washington
Post article.
In a Friday morning interview on CNN's "New
Day," Bowman said she went to a lawyer in 1989
to discuss legal action against Cosby but "he
laughed me right out of the office."
After that, Bowman said, she "just gave up" and
moved on with her life. When another woman
took legal action against Cosby years later,
Bowman decided to lend her support, she said.
"I believe her because it happened to me," she
said Friday.
CNN has reached out to Cosby's representative
for comment on this story, but has yet to hear
back.
The Tweet
On Monday, the comedian -- or whomever was in
charge of his social media -- put out a challenge
with a jovial picture of Cosby in a cap: "Go ahead.
Meme me! #cosbymeme."
The Internet immediately reacted, but probably
not in the way Cosby expected.
"Claire, have you seen my ... nevermind, found my
raping hat!" tweeted Trill Withers over the cap
picture.