COSBY ‘SHOW’
NOW HE WANTS TO TALK RAPE PREVENTION
MAYBE HE should have taken his own advice.
Bill Cosby’s sex assault trial may have ended with a hung jury — but the comedian is planning a bizarre victory tour aimed at educating men about sex assault.
Cosby’s spokespeople, during an appearance on “Good Day Alabama” on Wednesday, said the 79-year-old actor wants to speak directly to young people, including “athletes” and “married men.”
“Mr. Cosby wants to get back to work. We are now planning town halls, and we’re going to be coming to this city (Birmingham) sometime in July,” said spokesman Andrew Wyatt.
Dozens of women have come forward in recent years to say Cosby violated them. Many allege that they were drugged. Others say that they were raped.
Kelly Johnson, who testified at the recent trial about “prior bad acts” Cosby allegedly committed during a 2006 meeting, was stunned by the announcement.
“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,” she said.
Wyatt, meanwhile, said Cosby wants “to talk to young people because this is bigger than Bill Cosby.
“This issue can affect any young person, especially young athletes of today, and they need to know what they’re facing when they’re hanging out and partying, when they’re doing certain things that they shouldn’t be doing. And it also affects, you know, married men,” he said.
Cosby is himself married — for 53 years to wife, Camille, who stood by the embattled comedian throughout the trial.
Another Cosby rep, Ebonee Benson, said in the TV interview that it’s important for people to understand their exposure.
“Laws are changing. The statutes of limitations for victims of sexual assault are being extended. This is why people need to be educated on a brush against the shoulder,” she said. “Anything at this point can be considered sexual assault,” she said. “It’s a good thing to be educated about the laws.”
A judge in suburban Philadelphia declared a mistrial in Cosby’s sex assault case this past Saturday after two holdout jurors failed to convict.
The comedian is still facing three charges of aggravated indecent assault in a retrial, although prosecutors have offered no timeline.
Wyatt, in an email Thursday, elaborated on the tour, saying it would cover “an array of issues” and that he and Benson had fielded “hundreds of calls from civic organizations and churches requesting for Mr. Cosby to speak to young men and women about the judicial system.”
Cosby’s team has said the district attorney’s office charged the actor for political reasons.
Prosecutors have vowed to retry him. The district attorney in Montgomery County, just outside Philadelphia, claims the former “Cosby Show” star drugged and sexually assaulted Andrea Constand, 44, inside his Elkins Park, Pa., mansion in 2004.
Lawyer Gloria Allred, who is representing several Cosby accusers, called the tour a “transparent and slick effort to attempt to influence the jury pool” for his next trial.
“Mr. Cosby should understand, however, that this is not about optics. It is about evidence, and according to news reports, at least 10 jurors out of 12 voted to convict him,” Allred said, referring to an ABC News account from jurors.