Lawyer: Cosby Won't 'Dignify' Sex Allegations

Bill Cosby notably clammed up when NPR asked about allegations of sex abuse that have recently reared their head, and he won't be talking about them anytime soon, his lawyer tells the AP. Calling the accusations a "decade-old" and "discredited," lawyer John Schmitt says Cosby won't "dignify" them with comment. But while Cosby might be holding his tongue, accuser Tamara Green—a retired lawyer who says the comedian drugged and groped her in 1970—tells People she thinks it's "fabulous" that he's again taking heat. "He is in fact a sexual predator," she says. "I don't dispute the fact the man has done much good, but he is a flawed man."

Cosby can hold his silence all he wants, writes Renee Graham at the Boston Globe, but "the court of public opinion has already decided its case against him." It's a particularly unexpected and "stinging betrayal" because "this is the man who was all but anointed 'America’s dad' during the giddy years of The Cosby Show." Social media is crucifying him, she writes, giving the sense that he "may not be allowed to recover." Perhaps his silence is simply his realization that "his reputation is a lost cause" and his career forever "soiled." (More Bill Cosby stories.)