This is not the man I knew,” Sam Haskell, the former Executive Vice President of William Morris Agency, said about comedian icon, Bill Cosby. An Amory, Mississippi native and Ole Miss grad, Haskell worked with Cosby for many years.
“He was one of the kindest I have ever known,” Haskell said. “It’s still very sad to me and I hate that it’s happening.” Many of the rape allegations against Cosby, 77, date back as far as the 1960s. While most accusers have publicly come forward in recent weeks, Haskell said Cosby had been “chased by people for years for money… but then it became more epidemic, and more and more and more keep coming.”
Haskell said before passing judgment, it’s important to remember that there are always multiple sides to every story and there is information that has not been made public. “And I think that we all need to try to look at this from a mature point of view. Ask yourself, ‘well maybe what happened at the apartment was wrong. But why did they go to the apartment anyway?’”
Tuesday, Los Angeles prosecutors declined to file any charges against Cosby after Judy Huth accused him of molesting her in 1974. Their decision was based on the fact that the statue of limitations had passed.
While other charges may go away because of the legal time clock restricting court action, the public damage has already been done. Since the allegations surfaced, numerous scheduled Cosby performances have been canceled. However, the comedian’s February appearance at Jackson’s Thalia Mara Hall has not yet been called off.
