Forget about the idea of LA as liberal loveland, there was always a strong undercurrent of white supremacy pervading the landscape. This was the era when Daryl Gates was still the most influential police commander, yeah?

I'm not so sure they would have let things slide unless there was some heavy-duty studio fixing involved.

I'm not gonna say what's what, but there's a lot of revisionist history here in judging what Cosby's power level was like in the 60s and 70s and what America's views on race in general were like in those days. A man like Cosby was in a very precarious position because Americans were still not sure about how to feel about negroes and Cos was a transitional figure who walked the wire to show that blacks were nothing to be scared of. But that balance he walked was fragile and could very easily be upset.

Plus, I don't think it would have been as easy to explain away as "groupie regrets".... Cos was married at the time. To a *black woman*. Forget about the rape part, just the notion of him cheating on his wife (with white women at that) would have been enough to constitute a career-ending scandal. Things like that were a much bigger deal then than they are now.