Bill Cosby’s youngest daughter lashed out in defense of her famous dad in a passionate Facebook post.
Evin Cosby defended her father on his official Facebook page Wednesday, assailing his “public persecution,” and denouncing the “cruelty” of the media and his accusers who have branded him a “‘rapist’ without ever knowing the truth.”
“When people are so quick to cast hate and make accusations of horrific violence against my dad, they are callous in their carelessness about the harm they are causing to others,” she wrote. “Instead of going through the criminal justice system, these stories never got investigated and just got repeated. They have been accepted as the truth.”
Evin Cosby also complained that her father’s efforts to defend himself, and those of his attorneys, resulted in lawsuits and accused the media of refusing to publish supportive statements from her father’s defenders.
“People were constantly reaching out to me about, ‘Why doesn’t your dad say something?’ I kept saying, ‘He’s trying, but the media is only interested in the stories of the women.’ Friends of ours tried to help, but the media wouldn’t print what they said or knew. Our friends that spoke up were pressured to shut up. No one wanted to print their supportive words. We live in a scandalous country where the more sexualized and provocative the story, the more attention it gets,” she wrote.
Andrew Wyatt, a spokesman for Bill Cosby and his legal team defending him on criminal sexual assault charges in Pennsylvania, confirmed to USA Today that Evin Cosby’s post is legitimate but declined to answer questions about why she is speaking out now.
This is not the first time Evin Cosby has spoken out against the allegations facing her father – allegations that involve dozens of women began coming forward to accuse Bill Cosby of sexual assault in episodes dating back to the 1960s, but it’s the first time any of Bill Cosby’s close relatives has issued a statement since the criminal charges were filed in late 2015.
Jury selection is scheduled to begin next month for Bill Cosby’s June trial on charges he drugged and molested Andrea Constand, a Temple University employee, at his home in suburban Philadelphia in 2004. He has denied the charges, saying the encounter was consensual.
