Bill Cosby accused of Rape - say it ain't so

Oct 30, 2014 - Bill Cosby has been traveling the country promoting his new comedy tour. .... He goes way back when he and Jim Brown were hanging together at the Play Boy ..

Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist, and Rebel dragons can be perfectly nice. ... 124 m., 2010 Hugh M. Hefner, Joan Baez, Tony Bennett, Pat Boone, Jim Brown, ... In his Mansion, Tony Bennett, Julie London, and Bill Cosby hung out, and there ...

Bill Cosby has hired a battalion of private investigators to dig up dirt on his many accusers, The New York 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.

Discussing supermodel Beverly Johnson’s claim that Cosby spiked her cappuccino during a visit to his home in the 1980’s 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 confirmed the alleged legal strategy noting that it has already worked to some degree.

“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,” the source noted.

The insider also said they’ve dug up information on another accuser – Katherine McKee, a onetime girlfriend of the late Sammy Davis Jr. who said Cosby raped her in the 1970's.Investigators uncovered internet posts in which McKee wrote glowingly of Cosby and an interview in which she said she is “used to lying.”

Singer would not address the hiring of private detectives.

“You [the media] don’t need private investigators to find out information about the accusers. A simple Google search will obtain the information,” he said.

In 2005, when Tamara Green told the “Today” show and The Philadelphia Inquirer that Bill Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted her in the early 1970s, one of Mr. Cosby’s lawyers publicly branded the allegations “absolutely false,” while his aides approached another newspaper with “damaging information” about her, according to court documents.

Five years earlier, after an actress on Mr. Cosby’s TV series “Cosby” told the police that he had tried to put her hand down his sweatpants at his New York townhouse, Mr. Cosby’s lawyers threatened The National Enquirer with a $250 million defamation suit for publishing detailed comments about the incident by the woman’s relatives.

And when Mr. Cosby acknowledged an extramarital affair in a 1997 interview with Dan Rather, his agent telephoned the president of CBS Entertainment to demand that the segment not air on “60 Minutes” as planned. It did not, although CBS News said the decision had nothing to do with the call.

Though the Cosby legal team threatened The National Enquirer in 2000 with a $250 million lawsuit, relations with that tabloid were decidedly more friendly five years later. After Ms. Constand, the Temple University employee, had gone public with her accusations against Mr. Cosby, The National Enquirer was pursuing a story about another woman, Beth Ferrier, who said Mr. Cosby had drugged and sexually assaulted her in the mid-1980s. In exchange for not publishing its article about Ms. Ferrier, The Enquirer got an exclusive interview with Mr. Cosby (the headline: “Bill Cosby Ends His Silence: My Story!”), according to recently unsealed court documents.


Team Cosby would also try to apply pressure behind the scenes. In 1997, soon after Mr. Cosby’s son, Ennis, was murdered in Los Angeles, Mr. Cosby gave his first interview to Dan Rather of CBS News. For much of the two and a half hours of questioning, Mr. Rather focused on the crime and how Mr. Cosby was dealing with the grief. But he then gingerly asked about Ms. Jackson and the extortion charges, which had just become public days before. Mr. Cosby, surprisingly, acknowledged the affair with the mother and said that he could possibly be the father.

When the network aired the newsiest tidbits from Mr. Rather’s forthcoming “60 Minutes” segment on the morning and evening news programs, Norman Brokaw, Mr. Cosby’s William Morris agent and one of the most powerful people in television at the time, called Leslie Moonves, then the president of CBS Entertainment, to complain about the treatment of the network’s star.

Days later — after Mr. Rather had recorded his audio for “60 Minutes” — CBS News decided to scrap the segment. CBS executives denied any corporate interference, saying journalistic reasons had prompted the move. In the biography “Cosby,” Mark Whitaker writes that bad blood between Don Hewitt, the powerful executive producer of “60 Minutes,” and Mr. Rather also drove the decision. Mr. Hewitt, who despised Mr. Rather, was furious that the newsiest excerpts had already been broadcast.

Martin told Cosby, “I was always great to watch the interplay between you and Phylicia (Rashad),” who played Heathcliff Huxtable’s wife, Clair, on the NBC sitcom.

Cosby responded to Martin’s comment about the chemistry between the television couple, saying, “Let me tell you something that your audience doesn’t know.”

Cosby paused, leaned in to Martin and said, “Ahmad Rashad messed that thing up.”

“When he married her I didn’t mind, but then she got pregnant and I didn’t want Cliff and Clair to have another kid. So we had to hide her body, which took me away from — took Cliff away from touching her and playing with her because I didn’t want the audience to see that.”

Cosby continued, “When that was over and she went on and had the…child — it was gone man. Not the love for her, but it was gone in terms of now we have to get back to the touching. I just lost it.”

More than a decade ago, I wrote about the McMartin preschool case, and other satanic ritual child abuse accusations that turned out to be false. Back then, the slogan many supporters of the accusations brandished was, “Believe the Children.” It was an antidote to skepticism about real claims of child abuse, just as today, “Believe the Victims” is a reaction to a long history of callous oversight of rape accusations. “Believe the Victims” makes sense as a starting presumption, but a presumption of belief should never preclude questions. It’s not wrong or disrespectful for reporters to ask for corroboration, or for editors to insist on it. Truth-seeking won’t undermine efforts to prevent campus sexual assault and protect its victims; it should make them stronger and more effective.

The AP doesn't normally identify people who say they are victims of sexual abuse, but Huth has come forward publicly in the lawsuit and at a news conference.



Strecker's declaration does not provide details about how the witnesses corroborate Huth's story, but her lawsuit states she and a 16-year-old female friend were taken to the Playboy Mansion by Cosby sometime around 1974. The lawsuit states that they met him at a film shoot, and he later gave them alcohol while they played pool, before he took them to the mansion.

Strecker's filing also includes a declaration from Dr. Anthony E. Reading, a clinical psychologist who interviewed Huth and stated there is "a reasonable basis to believe that Ms. Huth has been subject to childhood sexual abuse." Reading's statement does not mention Cosby. Strecker didn't return a call from AP.

Many of the allegations against Cosby are blocked from court by statutes of limitations, but Los Angeles police are investigating Huth's claims.

She appeared at a news conference Dec. 5 with attorney Gloria Allred, who held up decades-old photographs of Huth with Cosby. Allred wrote in an email Monday that the photos were taken at the Playboy Mansion.

What "type of man" takes a 15 and 16 year old to a Playboy Mansion.

2 more women join defamation lawsuit against Bill Cosby
January 5, 2015

BOSTON — Two women accusing Bill Cosby of sexual offenses decades ago have joined a defamation lawsuit, contending he publicly branded them as liars through statements by his representatives.

The amended complaint was filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Springfield, in western Massachusetts, where Cosby has a home in Shelburne Falls.

Cosby is the only defendant in the lawsuit, originally filed last month by Tamara Green, who said he drugged and assaulted her in the 1970s. The two new plaintiffs are Therese Serignese, who said he drugged and raped her in 1976, and Linda Traitz, who alleges he tried to drug her and then sexually groped her in 1970.

Attorney Joseph Cammarata, who represents the three women, said the civil action allows them to have their allegations heard since criminal statutes of limitation have expired.

"The lawsuit provides an opportunity for women who claim to have been harmed to have their day in court in a forum where the truth can be tried," he said.

Cosby's publicist David Brokaw and lawyer Martin Singer did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday. Singer has said he expected to prevail in the original lawsuit.

Green first spoke publicly about her allegations in 2005. She said in the lawsuit that after she did media interviews Brokaw and Cosby's lawyer Walter M. Phillips Jr. made statements intended to expose her to public contempt and ridicule. Phillips said last month he represented Cosby in 2005 but no longer does, and he declined to comment further. Brokaw did not return messages then seeking comment on Green's allegations.

Serignese and Traitz, who are from Florida, allege in the amended complaint that when they came forward separately last November, Singer issued responses for Cosby that said they and other accusers were lying.

Since November, at least 15 women have come forward with claims Cosby sexually assaulted them decades ago. Most of the women say he drugged them before he assaulted them...
http://www.bostonherald.com/inside_track/celebrity_news/2015/01/2_more_women_join_defamation_lawsuit_against_bill_cosby

.these women are not willing to be bullied into silence again.

Statement excerpted from your article:

Since November, at least 15 women have come forward with claims Cosby sexually assaulted them decades ago. Most of the women say he drugged them before he assaulted them...

Bill Cosby's longtime onscreen wife Phylicia Rashad has come out swinging against the sexual-assault allegations dogging her former co-star, saying they are part of an "orchestrated" smear campaign to keep the comedian off of television.

Some 20 women — including supermodels Beverly Johnson and Janice Dickinson — have accused Cosby of sexual assault. The comedian, who has not been criminally charged, has denied assaulting the women and also has accused one of trying to extort him.

In an interview with ShowBiz411, Rashad — who played the iconic Claire Huxtable on "The Cosby Show" and also co-starred in the shows sequel, "Cosby," slammed the allegations against the comedian. "Forget these women," Rashad told the entertainment website in an interview posted late Tuesday. "What you're seeing is the destruction of a legacy. And I think it's orchestrated."

There is no way in Hell Phylicia Rashad and her sister would stand up for Cosby if they though he was guilty, and they should know.

There is no way in Hell Phylicia Rashad and her sister would stand up for Cosby if they though he was guilty, and they should know.