Bill Cosby has apparently hired a new lawyer to perform damage control after several women have come forward to publicly accuse the 77-year-old comedian of rape.
Mr. Cosby is firing back after former supermodel Janice Dickinson claimed Tuesday that he raped her in Lake Tahoe in 1982 when she was an aspiring singer. Her alleged experience of being drugged and raped by the comedian is strikingly similar to the other multiple allegations against him.
After publishing a story about Ms. Dickinson’s accusations, Buzzfeed reported that it received a threatening letter from Mr. Cosby’s new attorney, Martin Singer.
As The Hollywood Reporter noted last year, Mr. Singer has “become famous for sending menacing legal threats,” and has represented celebrities such as Charlie Sheen and John Travolta, Buzzfeed reported.
“More than three decades have passed since the 1982 Lake Tahoe dinner described in Ms. Dickinson’s book about how she was not intimate with my client, and a dozen years have passed since her book came out and she confirmed that same story to the media,” Mr. Singer’s letter to Buzzfeed reads. “You can easily confirm that the manufactured story that my client’s lawyers pressured the publisher to take the rape story out of the book is utterly fabricated. Since at a minimum Ms. Dickinson fabricated the assertion my client’s lawyers pressured the publisher more than a decade ago to take out the sexual assault story, a story we heard now for the first time, it would be reckless to rely on Ms. Dickinson in this matter.
“We caution you in the strongest possible terms to refrain from disseminating the outrageous false story,” the letter continues. “If you recklessly publish the story instead of checking readily available information demonstrating its falsity, all those involved will be exposed to very substantial liability.
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“You proceed at your peril,” it concludes.
Mr. Cosby’s future remains in limbo as more women come forward publicly. Netflix announced Tuesday that it was postponing the launch of his comedy special, and NBC on Wednesday scrapped a pilot for a family sitcom.
• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
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