Bill Cosby’s attorney Martin Singer has spent the past couple of days declining comment on the civil suit filed by Judy Huth, who alleges that Cosby molested her when she was 15 years old, and now we have the reason why. As expected, Singer has fired back with a rebuttal of Huth’s claims, dismissing her as another opportunist. Perhaps not as expected, that rebuttal came in the form of a counter-suit accusing Huth of extortion—and demanding she now pay $33,000 to Cosby.
In the documents, Singer says Huth’s attorney, Marc S. Strecker, had several conversations with him in the weeks leading up to the lawsuit, in which Strecker demanded first $100,000, then $250,000 in order to stop Huth from going public. Singer says this also followed Huth’s unsuccessful attempt to sell her story to the tabloids “nearly a decade ago” (though he doesn’t explain how he knows this)—something that would suggest she obviously remembered the alleged incident well before the three-year window that’s required by California law, for adults filing claims based on a recent recall of sexual abuse as a minor.
Singer further argues for the suit’s dismissal based on technicalities, such as her failure to include proper paperwork from a mental health practitioner arguing for a “reasonable basis to believe” that Huth was suffering from emotional distress from that incident. But perhaps the most notable part of Singer’s argument is his assertion that Huth’s story completely falls apart when it mentions that she and Cosby played a drinking game over a round of billiards, in which they both supposedly consumed three beers. Despite alcohol being present in almost every accusation against Cosby, Singer says this latest allegation is obviously, “patently false,” given the fact that “it is well-known, and easily verifiable, that Mr. Cosby is a lifelong non-drinker.”
In a revelation that could completely change your perception of him, the fact that Cosby is “a lifelong non-drinker” means that this routine from Bill Cosby… Himself—in which he breaks down what’s like to be drunk on different kinds of liquors—is apparently a complete fabrication. It’s almost like we can’t trust anything Bill Cosby says anymore.
The “lifelong non-drinker” assertion also comes shortly after Janice Dickinson shared with TMZ this photo of Cosby, wearing the “patchwork” robe she’s often described him as wearing, taken in his hotel room on the day he allegedly raped her. As you can see, Cosby is sitting next to a 40 oz. malt liquor, of the kind he—a lifelong non-drinker—apparently kept around just for visitors, just to be sociable, and definitely not to get them drunk so he could take advantage of them.
While Huth’s suit and Cosby’s counter-claim are only now beginning to battle it out in the courts, Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck came forward yesterday to clarify that the LAPD would investigate any charges filed against Cosby, regardless of any statute of limitations. “We don’t turn people away because things are out of statute. You come to us, especially with a sexual allegation, we will work with you,” Beck said. “We address these things seriously—and it’s not just because it’s Mr. Cosby.” And while those investigations may not lead to any criminal charges, owing to the statute, their findings could still be used in any civil proceedings and the like.
Of course, right now the point is moot: Despite these numerous allegations, no one has filed any complaints with the LAPD about Bill Cosby.
But even if those charges are eventually filed, Cosby obviously will still have his defenders—and perhaps none so compelling, or as predictable, as Cee Lo Green. Earlier this year, Green pleaded no contest to dosing a woman’s drink with ecstasy, then took the opportunity to tweet a series of philosophical treatises on what really constitutes rape. “Women who have really been raped REMEMBER!!!” Cee Lo Green said at the time, in a preview of his inevitable call to the stand as an expert witness for Cosby’s defense.
In the meantime, Green shared some more of his thoughts with TMZ, arguing that “it doesn’t seem fair” that these allegations—and Cosby’s silence on them—seem to have convinced the public of Cosby’s guilt. “You can’t defend yourself in that capacity, you know what I’m sayin’? You just have to let facts be facts, and so on and so forth,” he said, to a world that, no, definitely doesn’t know what he’s sayin’, and that’s actually most of the time.
Anyway, among the facts that have been allowed to be facts, Green’s own accuser—echoing those many allegations against Cosby—said the singer doped her drink, after which she woke up the next morning next to him, naked, with no idea of what had happened. So he is indeed familiar with situations in which people are incapable of defending themselves. And that kind of expert testimony could perhaps prove useful to Cosby’s team someday, should this whole counter-suit measure not work out.