LOS ANGELES — Bill Cosby has the right to remain silent – and that may be his best strategy.

With police urging any possible sex abuse victims to come forward, two lawsuits pending and more than 15 women making accusations stretching back years, Cosby has little to gain by speaking publicly, legal experts say.

While his reputation takes a hit, the comedian could potentially ride out the storm as lawyers knock down old claims in court. But if he says something disparaging about an accuser, as one woman has alleged, he could face a new wave of legal trouble.

“Staying mostly silently may be the best tactic for him given the dangers of saying something that might be libelous,” said Eugene Volokh, a law professor at University of California, Los Angeles.

Cosby has been under siege amid allegations that he drugged women and sexually assaulted them, dating back to the 1970s. He has never been criminally charged in connection with the accusations, and his lawyer has denied many of them. Cosby settled a lawsuit in 2005 with a Pennsylvania woman who said he drugged and fondled her.

As the scandal smears his onetime image as America’s lovable TV dad, Cosby has had little to say publicly about the scandal, though he did address his silence last month before his stand-up concert tour began to crumble.

“I know people are tired of me not saying anything, but a guy doesn’t have to answer to innuendos,” he told Florida Today newspaper.

Attorney Martin Singer has done most of the talking, dismissing allegations as “fantastical,” “unsubstantiated” and “uncorroborated.”

Singer has attacked the one lawsuit alleging sex abuse, saying the woman who claimed Cosby drugged and molested her at the Playboy mansion in 1974 when she was 15 had tried to extort $250,000 from the star. Singer moved to undermine her assertion that she only recently discovered the trauma by saying she tried to peddle her story to a tabloid 10 years ago.


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.