Lawyer: Cosby Never 'Bound' Or 'Gagged' Women To Stop Them From Coming Forward [View all]

[DonViejo]

Bill Cosby's lawyer, Monique Pressley, was in full damage control mode during her appearance Friday on HuffPost Live with Marc Lamont Hill, following the publication of New York magazine's viral cover featuring the photos of 35 women who have publicly accused the comedian of rape and/or sexual assault.

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Pressley told Hill:

I believe people are innocent until they’re proven guilty. And if you can’t prove them guilty in a court through prosecution then you don’t get the option of persecution instead. I don’t think that 10, 20, 30, 40 years later people get to decide to come forward when there is no opportunity – not just for Mr. Cosby to offer a defense for a criminal prosecution – there’s no opportunity for an alleged victim, an accuser, to prove up what actually happened.

She said women have a "responsibility" to come forward as soon as possible if they want justice they seek and deserve. Pressley said:

The only way for a woman to get the justice that she seeks — and that, if her allegation is true, that she deserves — is to come forward [soon after the crime]. And even if the reasons that the women did not do that are legitimate ones, what cannot happen – in my opinion, in the United States – is that 40 years later there is a persecution tantamount to a witch hunt where there was no prosecution timely and there was no civil suit timely.

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Full article + video of interview:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/cosby-pressley-lawyer--3