So many women have come forward with strikingly similar stories of being drugged and raped by Bill Cosby that countless people now believe that he has an M.O. and that he sexually assaulted dozens of women. Major news outlets including People Magazine and The Washington Post have done front page profiles of Cosby’s predatory behavior. Journalists have interviewed victims and done extensive fact checking. The facts are damning. At least 28 women have accused Cosby of sexually assaulting them, and many women have revealed their identities.
Instead of actually addressing the charges at any point over the past two months, Cosby has only urged the “black media” to stay neutral in their reporting. His wife has also tried to paint him as a victim. According to a new report in the NY Post, Cosby has hired an entire fleet of private investigators to dig up information on the women who are coming forward. The Post has this exclusive, along with alleged quotes from Cosby, made during a meeting on his latest attack plan. Cosby reportedly questioned model Beverly Johnson’s delay in going public with the story that he drugged her.
Bill Cosby has hired a battalion of private investigators to dig up dirt on his many accusers, The Post has learned.
The comedian, fighting an onslaught of accusations that he sexually assaulted more than two dozen women over many years, is paying six-figure fees to private investigators for information that might discredit his alleged victims.
Multiple sources confirmed that Cosby, through his Hollywood attorney Martin Singer, is implementing a scorched-earth strategy in which anything negative in his accusers’ pasts is fair game.
At least one Glendale, Calif.-based firm with a half-dozen former LAPD detectives on staff is muckraking for Cosby, a source said.
“If you’re going to say to the world that I did this to you, then the world needs to know, ‘What kind of person are you? Who is this person that’s saying it?’ ” Cosby told his legal and public-relations team at a recent meeting, according to an insider who was present.
“You can’t say that I put something in your coffee, threw you in a cab and then you go on and live a high-profile life, a famous life and you never complain,” Cosby said, referring to supermodel Beverly Johnson, who claimed “America’s Dad” spiked her cappuccino during a visit to his home in the 1980s, the source said. “You mean you never reported it to the police? You never tell anyone?”
The source continued: “The strategy isn’t new and it’s quite simple: You say I’m a bad guy, well, let’s see what gives you the right to throw a stone at my house when your home is also made of glass.”
Another source, who has worked with Cosby for at least a decade, confirmed the alleged legal strategy.
“It’s sort of worked to some degree already,” that source said. “They were able to find out information about Beverly Johnson’s boyfriend who said she only had good things to say about Cosby. We found out that Beverly never told her live-in lover of several years what she’s now telling the media and we found that to be strange.”
Of course Cosby is doing this. Of course he’s going after his victims personally, and of course it would never occur to him to set up a fund for his victims or to admit to any level of guilt. It’s no wonder that so many women kept quiet for so long and there are likely countless more victims. Cosby’s lawyer, Marty Singer, refused to address The Post’s story that Cosby has hired PIs to investigate his accusers, but he did talk some smack about how the media isn’t doing its job. “You [the media] don’t need private investigators to find out information about the accusers. A simple Google search will obtain the information.” A simple google search will also reveal how much all the victims’ stories match up. Incidentally, Singer also represented John Travolta in his sexual abuse scandal.
F**k this guy.
yup! that really is all there is to say
That MF needs to stop. Literally. Perhaps he’s been taking the pills he’s been slipping women and is now delusional.
Yep. Nothing else to add.
He’s disgusting.
Right, cause rectifying the wrong he’s done in anyway is too much Like right, Best to Mudslinging the women he already shat upon, Ok!
Get yourself some pudding and go away for ever – asta la vista gringo !!!
Yeah, because that’s what an innocent man does, huh Cosby? *eye roll*
He’s a piece of sh*t!! He belongs in hell.
Dear Bill,
Even if your team reveals these women secretly wear fur coats made of kittens, that DOES NOT NEGATE WHAT YOU DID TO THEM.
So go ahead and scorch the earth but remember you’ll end up burned, too.
Amen.
..And every award or honour he’s ever been given should be retracted and annulled.
Plus his ‘star’ in the Hollywood walk of fame should be dug out pronto.
have you seen what has been done to his star?
someone has repeatedly scrawled “RAPIST” in what looks like a sharpie pen all over it.
each time they clean it, it gets defaced again. they SHOULD just dig it out.
No matter what he digs up on these women it won’t matter, he’ll now be forever known as the piece o’ shite who molested dozens of women.
He and his wife should be ashamed of themselves.
I don’t want to drag his wife into this. Who knows what goes on in their marriage, kwim? You are assuming he has treated this woman with respect for the past 50 years and that she was somehow complicit in his crimes.
Lou Ferrigno’s wife,Carla, implied in her story about Cosby that Camille Cosby may have known the things her husband was up to.
she may or may not know the truth about him (I’m guessing she does) but for her to chime in and call Cosby the “victim” tells me all I need to know about her “complicity”.
Oh she knew. And she IS complicit. It sucks that the world can be that evil, but it is.
His wife would Say goodnight and go upstairs to sleep and leave Bill alone downstairs with a young woman who just came into their home with his male friends and also the make friends would leave and go home…and Camille knew Bill was alone with some of these young women,when she would retire for the night.
Sorry but that sounds so strange….for a wife to behave.
Wouldn’t you ask the woman to leave politely as it was getting late? Why leave the women alone with your husband….while you go to sleep? It’s just odd.
Did Camille just look the other way all these years or was she completely naive?
Crisis management 101 – kill the messenger, discredit the victim, position yourself as the victim. What Cosby doesn’t get is that serial rape isn’t a crisis that can be managed. He is permanently damaged, and, hopefully, will one day be prosecuted.
I don’t understand why people can’t buy that the women are telling the truth. I know several people who think they are just doing it for the money. why would the women go through the interrogation, mudslinging and slut shaming if it wasn’t true? I can understand why they remained silent for so long. It has to be terrifying, the idea of confronting this huge, powerful man who did these things to them. And part of them prob wanted to forget about it, couldn’t deal with it at the time. I think they are just now comfortable and strong enough to confront him. and some of the women coming forward gives courage to other victims to do the same thing. I hope he doesn’t get away with this.
You are right, @snowflake. Think about how scary it is for non-celebs to come forward, tell their friends/family, name their accuser and then go through a trial. it is a horrible ordeal for anyone . BC has been famous for decades-I’m sure that he intimidated the hell out of his victims. that lying ba$tard is going to do whatever he has to make himself look good. He had no problem attacking these girls (allegedly-have to throw that in there) he will have no problem slinging mud at them. What a monster.
not to mention that in his heyday he was one of the most powerful men in Hollywood. I could see why Beverly wouldn’t tell her boyfriend. people act like the nanosecond a rape or assault happens, women should just run screaming into the streets about it. but they don’t because once you make that allegation, your entire life and history are picked apart to the point where you have to wonder if talking about it is even WORTH it. every short skirt you wore, every time you ever batted your eyelashes becomes a way to undermine what you’ve said. and bill knows this, and it’s why he’s gotten away with it for decades. and now America is shocked. except for those of us who keep up with celebrity gossip, and we all knew about this a long time ago.
Because to acknowledge that would mean you have to acknowledge the systemic problem which is male entitlement. This isn’t a problem of decades but of centuries and it will take a long time to root out completely.
There’s gotta be a special, dedicated circle of hell for Cosby, Polanski, and Woody Allen.
Bill Cosby has more skeletons rattling around in his closet. He wants to get this situation back under his control before something else comes out. This storm is going to get worse for him. I will bet that this storm has the name “Lisa”
“He wants to get this situation back under his control before something else comes out”
Clearly HE knows how many victims are out there (we can only guess, but as the perp, he KNOWS). He knows how many have remained quiet *so far* and wants to keep it that way. Digging up this dirt is a two-fold solution. One- it is a way to encourage the silent to STAY silent, lest they have their dirt dug up too. And two– if he can make the accusers look bad in anyway, that helpsd his case with some of the public. Personally, unless a PI can find rvidence of all 28 accusers having blackmailed people over false charges in the past, I don’t see what it has to do with THIS. But we can bet on seeing lots of stories about the coinsensual sex lives of these women. Because you know, if you have ANY pre-marutal sex EVER–then it must be ok for Cosby to drug and rape you.
So Gross.
If you’re referring to Lisa Bonet Newwester, I’m sooo with ya! The first time I read about this maniacs poopy ways I immediately thought of the actors on that show. If I remember correctly, Lisa’s departure was not at all amicable. I realize that what I’m saying is conjecture, and I truly hope he kept his douchelord antics off set, but it would make a lot of sense. She is so charismatic, smart, and interesting and I’ve always wondered why her roles have been relatively limited in Hollygrosstownwood. Now I find it conceivable that he might’ve blacklisted Ms. Bonet. This story makes me stabbier than any other in quite awhile. I’m not one that believes in violence, but, if left alone in a room with this gross thing wandering around calling himself a man, I might just cut a bitch.
All of these people are from the era of celebrity before it went digital — they still do everything too old school. The world has changed. You can’t bully social media around. it never stops.
Ok, I’ll be the voice of dissent today; Cosby isnt being tried in a court of law. If he were I would agree that digging up his accusers past would be playing dirty. And most judges would. He is not being tried by court,where all the safeguards for both accuser and defendant are in place, he is being tried in the media and by extension in the court of public opinion. His guilt has been assumed on the basis of the number of women and a supposed pattern. Now that pattern could well be a contrived one for all we know or it could be real. The point is its not being tested. And everything he says or does at this point would be just further confirmation for those who have already made their conclusions. Even a simple “I didnt do it” will be parsed and twisted into some kind of statement of disrespect against the accuser. Theres no winning after such public accusations, no coming back from that.
As I said, his guilt has been presumed and the only.way home is to prove his innocense. Except it is near impossible to prove that you didnt do something but especially so when we atre talking about thirty years ago.
So yeah, in light of the manner in which he has been tried I would say I am not surprised that they are going with the PI route. And if theres a tiny sliver of possibility that he is being set up by even one of them, then I would say go for it.
But that’s just it, Delueth. In a court of law, you seem to think the accuser would have safeguards. That’s not how it works at all. In a court of law, the woman is under siege, the man just has to sit there. The accused is ‘innocent’ until PROVEN guilty. That means the women are 100% fair game and lawyers can do ANYTHING to prove the women may have mis-remembered a small detail (were his undergarments dark purple or black…) or not seen clearly and bingo! the guy walks free.
The System you are so diligently defending is not set up to handle the misappropriation of power between a man and a woman. This is one of the many reasons women do not come forward. There’s the physical rape, and in court, there’s the psychological rape.
He’s doing this not to prove that ALL his (alleged) victims are liars but to discourage his other (alleged) victims from coming forward in the future.
Because even if he could disprove even a few of these victims, he knows he can’t disprove ALL of them. These allegations against him have been coming out for decades and he’s done this type of harassment, which it is, on his (alleged) victims via investigations, legal threats, etc.
Of course, he has the right to get legal or investigatory help. But again, legal issues aren’t the primary reason for this type of help against his (alleged) victims.
If he wants to say “I didn’t do it,” then he should. If he’s actually innocent of all the allegations over all these past decades, then he should say that. He’s got nothing to worry about if he did say this if he’s innocent. There’d be no ‘parsing’ this simple statement because it is a complete and blanket denial. It wouldn’t be a sign of ‘disrespect’ to his accusers if it this particular statement is true.
His public image is already tarnished. It’s been decades of accusations of this nature. All he can do now is claim total innocence if he is actually innocent. This is his only real defense because as you said “it is near impossible to prove that you didnt do something but especially so when we [are] talking about thirty years ago.”
Exactly. If you were being falsely accused of crime(s), would your first thought be “how can I tarnish the reputation(s) of my accuser(s)”?
Or would you proclaim your innocence and seek legal counsel to assist you in methodically prove that you didn’t commit said crime(s)?
Or maybe you’d sue for defamation if your reputation was damaged, resulting in monetary loss?
Face it: this is a man who is used to having control.
He’s trying to reassert his power over these women by attempting to victimize them all over again and it’s repulsive.
Defense attorneys do this ALL Of THE TIME in court. Nothing new.
@Kiddo – I wasn’t disputing whether it was ‘new’ or not.
I’m refuting the motives for his actions.
anne_000, I was just adding to the conversation, wasn’t criticizing, apologies if it seemed that way.
@Kiddo – No worries 🙂
tl:dr
“Victim-Blaming Screed”
Fortunately rules of evidence prohibit slut shaming as a defense in Court. This will get ugly.
Not always. Certain jurisdictions in the US will allow the accuser’s history in, depending on the circumstances; e.g. the accuser made a false rape accusation in the past. This is to establish a pattern of behavior.
What a bag of DICKS this guy is. A twatwaffle. An asswipe. I can’t with this level of douchebaggery.
And this is EXACTLY why most victims do not come forward especially against a powerful, wealthy perpetrator. Blame the victim is the most common and also the sickest strategy in fighting abuse charges. It’s what you wore, what you said, how you act, you took drugs once, you slept around, you drink occasionally, you have been in treatment for depression (most likely caused by the abuse), etc. etc. ad naseum. The persons of power will do anything to smear you and make you look like a POS. It makes me truly ill because I’ve been through this and there is no easy justice even with statute of limitations and the law on your side. Again, I am proud of these Women for banding together and standing up for themselves despite the odds.
^^This!!! Plus the point about social media further up the thread.
p.s. CB, that last photo is the grossest thing ever. Can we PLEASE never see that again? Ew.
Oh God yes! That photo made me gag a little.
And THIS is why rape victims don’t always press charges. Of all the women I know who have been raped (and girls who were molested as kids) less than a quarter of them ever spoke up about it. I even knew one teenager who was sued by the man she fought back against when he attacked her. Seriously. She actually jabbed his eye out of its socket and he tried to sue her.
We keep quiet for so many reasons…to protect people who would be hurt, to not be seen as the person who ruined a marriage and a family, for fear we won’t be believed…
“If it’s true, then why did you wait 30 years to say something?”
If I heard those words, it would feel almost worse than the original offense.
So I say nothing.
Boy, he really is a dirty, old man…..why are there still people paying to watch him? Why isn’t anyone confronting him at his shows?
If innocent take a lie detector test. If guilty resort to a smear campaign. Alleged sexual predators like Bill Cosby and accused pedophiles like Sylvain Kustyan, Jerry Sandusky, etc. must be apprehended before they have decades to prey upon our women and children. Sandusky is behind bars. But unfortunately, Sylvain Kustyan, who has been formally charged with two counts of 1st Degree Sodomy of a ten-year-old little boy, fled to avoid imminent arrest. Kustyan, formerly of Tuscaloosa, Alabama and Hermin/ Mazingarbe, France, is now a fugitive from the law. Victims of Child Sexual Abuse often suffer lifelong physical problems as well as the psychological and emotional trauma from their horrifying experiences. Male victims have 3x’s the heart attack risk and 10x’s the suicide rate. Since the average pedophile has 300 different victims in their lifetime and since the recidivism rate among pedophiles is virtually 100% they must be stopped ASAP!
This jumps out at me “what gives you the right to throw a stone at my house when your home is also made of glass.”. Meaning he did it. Meaning his glass house is made of sexual assault. Their houses might be made of bad things too, and if they are guilty of crimes they should be punished as well, but so should Bill. Two wrongs don’t make a right.
Yup, that stuck out for me as well.
It really does come across that way. It is like he is saying “I did horrible things in MY life and you want to bring them up? Ok, well then I am going to find our your “bad things” and bring them up. Except this isn’t a couple of presidential candidcates mudslinging tit for tat. HIS “bad thing” was assualting these wommen. HE doesn’t get to question THEIR “morals”.
just when you think that there is no way in hell that this story could get worse… man, he’s a piece of $hit.
^Truth. But I hold out hope that this last tactic will anger (rather than frighten) more of his victims to speak out. Maybe we will finally hear from some of his former female employees – they’ve been so very silent.
good points.
I totally believe this douche did everything that these woman said he did. It does make me wonder though, when Michael Jackson was accused of molesting children, I remember people defending him to the sky and back. If anyone was a predator it was MJ. And don’t give me that crap, “he didn’t have a childhood, so he surrounded himself with children”. He “loved” children, but not in a healthy way…
i know, that always sickens me too. i don’t understand why people still support that pedophile.
Just like Cosby’s victims, James Safechuck and Wade Robson are willing to put themselves through hell in order to tell the truth about their abuser (let alone those kids who tried to accuse him). I have no reason to question their testimonies. The victims need to be heard, even if it means losing a beloved public figure.
Yep! I remember watching a documentary and there were WITNESSES to him behaving inappropriately with young boys and one of the victims has come forward as an adult. Yet there are so many MJ deniers it’s really disturbing. I can’t even listen to his music anymore.
The difference between Michael Jackson’s situation and this piece if shit is that MJ had one accuser who accused him of one incident and was shown to have been manipulated by his mother. This piece of shit has been accused by 28 women (so far) with very similar stories showing a pattern over several decades. None of these women are looking for any money from this piece of shit, unlike the parents of MJ’s accuser. HUGE difference!
I have nothing but contempt for this guy. Hopefully no one pays attention to whatever “dirt” he digs up on his victims. He is old enough that he should just stay out of the public eye and finish out whatever life he has left.
It’s too late – there’s too many accusers, and too many people who were aware of his behavior for too long. Is he going to try to discredit the 90 year old former NBC employee who admitted to helping Cosby pay off these women too? Or is he just going after the female accusers?
And how dare he use them not going to the police as proof of his innocence. He PREYED on women he could have power over, knowing they wouldn’t report him. He used his wealth and standing to ensure he never had to face up to his crimes like a regular person, and, let’s not forget, DRUGGED them so their memories were foggy and they wouldn’t be able to make a coherent statement to police.
Uh huh. He goes after black people when they do something he doesn’t approve of, but as soon as he needs protection, he wants them on his side.
Perhaps all the victims should put together a class action lawsuit and scorch earth policy him?!
So if he can find “dirt” on these women, this negates their claims?
It doesn’t matter if these woman were all prostitutes with a rap sheet a mile long – What he did is wrong!
“It doesn’t matter if these woman were all prostitutes with a rap sheet a mile long – What he did is wrong! ”
You are right. The problem is, these aren’t prostitutes with a rap sheet a mile long. If they were, having him dig that up would not really be much of a problem for them. Their dirt wouldn’t be all that deeply buried.
The issue will be that many (most?) of these women are probably rather average. They probably are wives, moms, respected professionals with careers. And he is going to dg up some “silly” thing they did 20 years ago that might not be a crime—but might be very embarrassing or uncomfortable. The PI is going to find their long lost estranged best friend that will tell some Spring Break threesome story or somesuch—that maybe they never told their husband about–or maybe they don’t want theirteenaged KIDS to hear about, BC has more money than God, he can pay to have every single thing these women everr did in their lives brought up.
I have lived a rather tame life—but I still wouldn’t want every detail of my 20s broadcast across the world. And plenty of my friends are perfectly “average” and probably have at least one really juicy bit buried in their past.
You can sue for defamation/slander/libel even if what is revealed is true, DEPENDING ON THE INTENT. We know what the intent is here.
Gloria Allred’s law firm does a lot of pro bono work for women and children, and she is already involved here.
As a friend said to me today, Cosby should domate $20 million to RAINN and then just retire in silence somewhere until he dies. He’s done. The business deals axed, the universities who have disowned him, the incredible lack of public support… he is done.
Gee, he says these women are all lying. Why would they do that? None of them are demanding money. Gee, why doesn’t he just sue them for defamation then? Oh wait. That would result in him being put on a witness stand under oath. Can’t have that! Nope, best to go back to the usual bullying, intimidation, and threats.
Newsflash a*hole: nobody is going to buy into this anymore. Stick yourself with a fork, because you are DONE.
Sexual assault victims often cope with self-destructive behavior. So he wants to use that against them. But if they managed to cope without doing so, then that proves they weren’t assaulted?! It’s a Catch-22.
The best he can hope is that the attention goes away. Too many people will be outraged by a new sitcom, etc.
That is an excellent point. He may very well expose behavior that he himself caused.
How many times do these women have to be his victim? Why can’t he just go away?
This is just sickening. It’s going back into the “let’s make it all the victim’s fault she was assaulted.” What’s he trying to prove? The girl was a floozy so it was ok I raped her? Times 28 women? I honestly wish he would just go away…….
This just confirms Cosby’s predatory nature. He’ll stop at nothing, and spare no expense, to silence and control people. It’s also characteristic of the sickness he has — somnophilia — where he needs his victims to be unconscious…
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/09/health/when-rapists-weapon-is-a-drug.html?_r=0
Rape: the only crime where the victims are put on put on trial.
What I think is interesting is that his lawyer is letting him do this, victimize the victims again. Maybe he’s getting sick of his sick client. “Sure Bill, that sounds like a great idea, that will be $10,000 for the advice”. More than one way to skin a malevolent cat, but if that’s the case, he better be donating that money to a sexual assault victim’s fund. An innocent person accused of such heinous behavior does not react in any of the ways Cosby has reacted, that’s why he isn’t to be believed, and no one does.
Messing with Beverly Johnson is a huge mistake. She is as much of a black icon and ceiling breaker as Cosby is.
He is such a meglomaniac he doesn’t get that all of his actions, including this, are validating the women’s accusations.
You can sue for defamation/slander/libel even if what is revealed is true, DEPENDING ON THE INTENT. We know what the intent is here.
Gloria Allred’s law firm does a lot of pro bono work for women and children, and she is already involved here.
As a friend said to me today, Cosby should domate $20 million to RAINN and then just retire in silence somewhere until he dies. He’s done. The business deals axed, the universities who have disowned him, the incredible lack of public support… he is done.
Shame is powerful and all victims of sexual abuse feel shame. My mother is 85 years old. A few weeks ago, she told my sister and I for the first time ever, that her father raped her when she was 13 years old. My mother has kept silent for decades because of the shame.
The dirt’s already out there: Bill Cosby led these women to believe they could advance their acting careers by meeting with him. That’s the dirt.
I’m so sick of hearing about this POS but all of his dirt, whether before or after the rapes and druggings, needs to come out. What amazes me is he’s still getting gigs. I read that Judd Apatow called out 3 venues in Canada for booking him in January. Hope it shames them enough that they cancel the shows.
He’s gross. Still not saying whether he did the bad deeds or not. People who take on this type of strategy are definitely guilty in my book.