Thursday, December 4, 2014

Gloria Allred's Legal Confusion

It seems that every other day another woman pops out of the woodworks to accuse comedian and uber famous star Bill Cosby of committing rape that occurred at least ten years ago. Naturally when there are women involved in a high profile lawsuit, guess who will appear at a new conference in front of dozens of cameras leading the charge--Gloria Allred.

This Los Angeles feminist rights lawyer has been photobombing sensational news stories for decades, always holding herself up as a savior to women involved in some sort of lawsuit against a greater, meaner, more callous defendant. A couple of days ago, she demanded that Mr. Cosby put up $100 million as a legal fund to compensate all the potential suits that women may bring against him now and in the future. Says Ms. Allred, "If Mr. Cosby believes all the women are being untruthful, then this is his opportunity to prove it. What could be fairer than that?"

I don't know what kind of law the Loyola University School of Law taught Ms. Allred, but the American legal system has for centuries been based on the maxim that a person is innocent until proven guilty. It is very disingenuous of her to demand that Mr. Cosby drop the statute of limitations of these accusations and allow these women to sue him and have him prove his innocence. As a lawyer, she should know that it is not the defendant's duty to prove his innocence, it is the plaintiffs and their lawyers to show guilt. Mr. Cosby has no legal obligation to prove that he did not touch these women. That would be like asking him to prove he did not touch the other seven billion people on this earth. How would you prove a negative?

Most people I know are quite skeptical of all these women who suddenly appeared in the last few months to make the same complaints over and over again. Where were these women ten or twenty, or even forty years ago when they were supposedly raped by Mr. Cosby? Not a single one of them went to the police or told a family member who could talk them into going to the authorities?

Also hanging a $100 million kitty out there for anybody to collect is bound to bring forth even more women, not least of which is Ms. Allred herself. History has taught us that anytime a defendant settles with a large sum of money to distribute to plaintiffs, the legal vultures start circling hungrily. This has happened in cases like the tobacco and BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill lawsuits. Once an enormous amount of money is at stake, more people will suddenly decide that they have a good reason to want a pick of that carcass.

I don't know if Mr. Cosby is innocent or guilty of these charges. But his lawyer is smart in keeping him mum about the whole legal circus that is swirling around him. He is legally protected by the statue of limitations for activities that may or may not have happened decades ago. Unless there is some sort of photographic or DNA evidence, it is basically a he said/she said situation. Lawyers like Ms. Allred are just there to get their faces on the news cameras and make more money and fame for themselves.