In Wake of Mistrial, Bill Cosby Plans to Give Town Halls About Sexual Assault
Last week, Bill Cosby faced Andrea Constand, one of the 60+ women who accused him of drugging and then sexually assaulting them, in court. Tensions in the courtroom were high during the two-week trial, as the prosecution laid out the details of Constand’s harrowing ordeal and the events that took place after, and the defense attempted to frame Cosby’s relationship with the younger woman as consensual. Ultimately, the jury could not come to a consensus, and a mistrial was declared. While Cosby isn’t out of the woods yet (Montgomery County D.A. Kevin Steele stated he’d declare a retrial by the end of 2017,) the mistrial is the next best thing for him besides a not guilty verdict. Now it appears that, in the meantime, Cosby is gearing up for a particularly tasteless victory lap.
Cosby’s spokesman, Andrew Wyatt, announced on a local Alabama Fox News program this week (and then later confirmed with Deadline) that Cosby plans to do a series of town halls in the coming months around the country in which he will speak to people about how to avoid sexual assault charges. Wyatt claimed that Cosby’s team had received “hundreds of calls from civic organizations and churches who want to hear Mr. Cosby speak at town halls about the issue of criminal justice,” citing the media circus and the seeming witch hunt that targeted Cosby before he’d ever seen a day in court. “We have just started talks this week, but Birmingham is going to be one of the cities, perhaps Chicago and Detroit, lots of places,” added Wyatt.
It’s a bold and somewhat crass move on the surface, one that attorney Gloria Allred insists is an insidious attempt on Cosby’s part to influence the jury pool for his inevitable second trial. “Mr. Cosby should understand, however, that this is not about optics,” said Allred, “it is about evidence, and according to news reports at least 10 jurors out of the 12 voted to convict him on one felony count.” That report came from ABC, who interviewed one of the jurors a few days after the record-breaking 52-hour deliberation ended. If the jury was indeed that close to a conviction, then Cosby’s town hall tour could certainly be an attempt at positive PR going into a retrial. Whether that tactic will work for him, or whether it will only serve to further turn the public against him, remains to be seen.
Allred, who is currently representing a few of the 60+ women who have accused Cosby of assault to date, ended with this appropriately-sharp barb: “Under the circumstances, Mr. Cosby should not be conducting sex assault workshops, but if he does do them, then the best advice he can give to those attending is that if you do not drug and sexually assault women, then you need not worry about being charged with a crime.”
[H/T] Deadline