Our view: Secret settlements protect sexual predators
The question that reverberates in the chronicles of sexual harassment and worse by people such as Harvey Weinstein and Bill Cosby is: How could they have hidden their predatory actions toward so many women for so long? One answer is secret settlements and hush money, all sanctioned by law.
Sure, Weinstein had a stable of lawyers and spies slithering around, but his and Cosby's major shields for decades were the confidential settlements and other tools that too often protect makers of dangerous cars, incompetent doctors and sexual abusers alike.
The floodgates broke only after some courageous women were willing to speak out and the news media revealed their abusers' alleged deeds publicly. Without the glare of the spotlight, Weinstein, Cosby and their kind would have had time to find more victims.
On Nov. 3, one month after actress Ashley Judd and others went public in The New York Times and New Yorker, revealing scores of harassment and assault allegations against Hollywood producer Weinstein, New York police said they were building a criminal case against him based on an actress’ claim that he raped her seven years ago.
Cosby, too, was finally brought to public account in a Philadelphia courtroom only after the unsealing of a 2005 deposition in which he admitted he’d obtained Quaaludes planning to give them to women he wanted to have sex with. While the trial ended in a mistrial, Cosby will be re-tried and many women felt it was safe to come forward.
Such cases underscore the power of putting a spotlight on harassment and abuse. The result? Fewer abusers are free to act with pasts safely hidden.
Secrecy in these cases is too easy and comes in all sorts of legal permutations: Non-disparagement agreements are often forced on new employees. Court orders can seal damaging documents, such as the Cosby deposition.
Federal or state limits on such contracts are not particularly strong, but some remedies are simple. When cases land in court, federal and state judges often have authority to refuse to sign off on secrecy that involves covering up a public hazard, such as a sexual predator. They should use it when it is available such as under California law. More states should do the same.
However, new laws banning secrecy may not work in this complex area. Some victims may fear reprisals or feel shame if they go public. That’s why women and their lawyers need to step up and realize that by being silent they become enablers, allowing sexual predators to victimize more women.
Fox News fired Bill O’Reilly in April, not long after Wendy Walsh, a former guest on O’Reilly’s show, publicly accused the host of sexual harassment. Walsh isn't “seeking any money, just accountability,” her lawyer said in a news conference.
You can't fault some victims for accepting financial settlements. But if more women had taken the same attitude as Walsh and refused to keep silent, prominent predators would have been shut down years earlier.