Bill may have put the criminal in Cosby

Possibly tied up by his own 10-year-old testimony.

Say it isn't so, Bill.

The time for disbelief is long past, however, and it appears increasingly likely that, yes, America's favorite dad was a sexual predator, drugging and raping young women as a matter of habit, silencing his accusers for years through legal maneuvering made possible by his successful entertainment career.

It's sad for fathers in general, and African American dads in particular.

Bill Cosby was a beacon of responsibility and common sense for a generation of men too often disengaged or absent altogether, and for their sons, too often lacking a genuine masculine role model, leaving an exaggerated caricature of manhood in its wake.

According to court documents obtained by The Associated Press through a court order protested by Cosby's lawyers, the star admitted under oath in 2005 that he purchased Quaaludes to give to young women he wanted to have sex with, and admitted giving them to at least one woman and "other people" as well.

That case involved a former Temple University employee, who testified that Cosby gave her three half-pills of Benadryl. Cosby settled that sexual-abuse lawsuit for undisclosed terms in 2006, but he has been accused by more than two dozen women of sexual misconduct dating back more than four decades.

Now 77, he has never been criminally charged, and he cannot be prosecuted for most of them because of statutes of limitations.

If the accusations are true, it would not be surprising that most of his accusers were reluctant to come forward. For one, they were probably trapped in disbelief and denial, or blamed themselves, or were afraid of repercussions for their own show business ambitions.

Because of his celebrity, Cosby probably received extraordinary special treatment; and if that wasn't enough, his wealth could put the story the rest of the way into the closet.

Watching a video recording of a public radio reporter's cautious questioning of the star while doing an unrelated new story early in the scandal, after another comedian called him out, it was clear Cosby was used to squelching news that was detrimental to his own standing.

Are the days of such abuse by powerful people gone? Unfortunately, no; especially when the powerful person has the majority of the media on his side.

But the growth of alternative news sources and the ability of news consumers to independently check their accuracy, assuming they are genuinely interested in accuracy and truth, make it more and more difficult for powerful predators to keep their deeds in the dark.