Annons
Annons
Jody David Armour: Oh, it's going to have a huge impact. It corroborates the claims of plaintiffs and those who allege that they've been victimized by Bill Cosby.A large part of their essential claim is that he non-consensually drugged them to have sex with them. The [2005] deposition doesn't prove that he non-consensually gave women Quaaludes or any other drug as part of sex. But [it does] establish that he does mix sex and drugs and considers it a kind of acceptable and ordinary practice for him. It is powerfully corroborative of their essential claims that something like that may have gone on in their cases.
Annons
We have two parallel tracks of claims going against Bill Cosby: one on the criminal side, one on the civil side. The criminal side has typically not been a route that any of the other alleged victims could pursue because of the statute of limitations on the alleged crimes in most jurisdictions. But 2008 is within the statute of limitations period for sexual assault criminal prosecutions in California. So that is the one case that has some criminal implications to it. That's reason the DAs of Los Angeles County are looking into it for a possible criminal charge.This kind of revelation that came from these depositions will certainly affect most human decision-makers in a predictable way. It's going to make you even more suspicious of the person who you're investigating. Indirectly, it has certainly created more drive for the DA to take these charges seriously and to investigate them very thoroughly and to recognize that they'll be able to bring in some of the evidence from that deposition if this goes to trial as evidence that he was engaging in predatory behavior, using drugs and mixing them with sex.It may never go to trial, but just pointing to this deposition and saying: If this [evidence] goes to trial, or we know that most of the people in the jury box have heard of this even if they don't bring it into the trial, you're going to look very bad in the eyes of the jury. You don't want that do you? So why don't we just plea bargain here? It really strengthens their plea-bargaining hand and may make it unnecessary to even go to trial, because he and his lawyers can see just how weak a position he'll be in at a criminal trial with this kind of evidence.
Annons
Oh, yes. She has the sworn deposition that he made in 2005. He has some statements that he cannot go back on. So she can say, simply, Mr. Cosby, are you in the habit and practice of mixing sex with young women with drugs, yes or no? And he has to say yes because he's already said that in his deposition.As you put it, it is a template: She goes through the deposition and all the damning statements that he makes in that deposition that we're talking about now, all of those same damning remarks and admissions. She's just going to ask him [the same questions] again and get him on the record and then say: Let's go a little further. Have you given these drugs to women without their consent or awareness or knowledge? I can't imagine that he will say anything other than no to that. He will say that he gave it to them like you offer wine or whiskey. You're giving them something to alter their mood, but not doing it in a surreptitious way.Can she ask him to account for each individual Quaalude pill that he had in his possession as a powerful act of corroboration, even if he doesn't admit to anything?
Absolutely! She is, in these depositions, speaking not only to Cosby, but to an imaginary jury out there, a familiar court of public opinion right now.
Annons
What complicates it, here's the wild card: Is there going to be a criminal prosecution?It's one thing to talk to someone who's worth hundreds of millions of dollars about losing millions of dollars, even hundreds of millions of dollars. It's another thing to talk about a 77-, 78-year-old man sitting in a jail cell. When he's looking at that possibility, he may become a lot more reluctant to say things that may be incriminating.Right now, he has to recognize that anything he says under oath as part of these civil proceedings could have criminal implications, in the way of self-incrimination. How feisty he remains, if you will, is going to depend on what happens with this criminal case. Are charges going to be filed? Is he going to have to defend both a civil and a criminal case simultaneously? So he's looking at both a loss of a lot of money and a loss of liberty simultaneously—that's like a double barrel of legal actions aimed on him.
Annons
Let's say the criminal case doesn't go forward and there's no criminal prosecution. [Then] the defamation claims are the only ways that the rape charges can actually have a day in court. Even though the claim will be "defamation" in court, what will really be on trial is if Bill Cosby raped women, drugging them and then having sex. There may be something very important about that claim having its day in court to these plaintiffs on the one hand.On the other [hand], a big settlement carries its own implied admission at this point. He's already suffering a lot of condemnation from public opinion and a lot of sponsorship [implications], etc. They might want to say, I've had a lot of pain and suffering that I've gone through because of his actions and I need to work towards healing and being better. This compensation will help me to start the healing and move on.And by the way, any settlement is going to be huge because it's going to have to cover what they're going to be going for marginally in the trial, which is not just compensatory damages, but punitive, exemplary, punishment damages. A jury could give someone $1 million or $2 million in compensatory damages and then slam them with $100 million in punitive damages. The settlement would have to be large to account for that possibility. But if they got that large a settlement, they might say: Maybe I don't gain a lot more if it runs in court to trial.
Annons
I teach law school, so I'm big on the rules. I do believe rules matter and laws matter, so I'm going to nod in that direction as I tell you what practicing attorneys say.In the Bronx they used to say in the DA's office: "Charge him with anything; prove he's a son of a bitch." Once you prove to a jury's satisfaction that a particular defendant is a wicked individual—is just an SOB—then it's a lot easier to convince them of any particular facts that you're trying to establish. And I've heard a tort attorney say the same thing: He used to say, "When I was suing a corporation, the first thing I'd convince that jury of is that that corporation is wicked, evil. Then I'd start talking about causation."Gloria Allred is going to go into trial—if this goes to trial,—with a defendant who many people view already as perhaps depraved, at least morally deficient. It's much easier to prove anything else you have to prove in that case once you have fact-finders convinced of that.Especially after the California Supreme Court denied his attempts to get Allred's case reviewed, it seems like Cosby's running out of legal tactics. Does he have any other recourse, or is he just in a litigate-or-settle position?
No question, he has to litigate or settle.He's also got to try to, at the same time, reclaim his tattered public image, as I understand some people in his camp are trying to do now. Repairing that public image isn't just going to deal with any future commercial viability he might have, which I think is nil, zip, zero. It may also have an impact on affecting any perspective jurors if he can get a less dastardly image of himself in front of the public. Maybe some of the jurors in the jury box won't go in with the presumption that he's an SOB and therefore probably guilty of whatever he's being charged with.Follow Mark Hay on Twitter.