Bill Cosby’s Strange New Defense: I Didn’t Rape Beverly Johnson, I’m Blind!
Former TV super-dad and disgraced comedian Bill Cosby has come up with a strange defense in the rape allegations brought against him by former supermodel Beverly Johnson. He is, according to court documents, “legally and functionally blind.” His disability, the court documents seem to allege, proves that he did not attack Johnson as she has previously claimed.
The 78-year-old TV legend has been, to date, accused of raping about 100 individual women over a 43-year period with the use of a knockout drug.
But court documents reveal that Cosby suffers from vision problems due to glaucoma, as well as keratoconus, which is a disease that changes the shape of the eye’s cornea, resulting in distorted images.
And Cosby, who has won three Emmys for various roles — as well as America’s heart as Dr. Huxtable in The Cosby Show — before his violent past came to light is now using his legal blindness in a desperate attempt to defend himself from the allegations made by Beverly Johnson.
A source told Radar Online that Cosby hasn’t wanted to “make an issue of his eye condition, but it’s a real concern to his family and friends.”
The source added, “I think his pals and family are greatly alarmed at his bug-eyed appearance.”
However, Cosby’ supposed wish to not make his eye condition “an issue” with his friends and family has not stopped him from using it as a defense in the rape accusations made against him. It was used in the 14-page defamation lawsuit he recently filed against Johnson in the Los Angeles County Superior Court on December 21. In the suit, Cosby accused Johnson of making up the rape case simply to generate publicity for the autobiography she was promoting.
Beverly Johnson, now 63, claims that Cosby drugged her coffee in a Manhattan townhouse during the 1980s and that she had to “fend off his aggressive advance.” Johnson, along with Janice Dickerson, who also claims that Cosby attacked her, was a popular supermodel in the 1970s and the 1980s.
But Cosby is fighting back against Beverly Johnson, calling the allegations she made “malicious, opportunistic, false and defamatory.” Furthermore, the lawsuit claims, Johnson also falsely accused two of her previous boyfriends of abuse.
But in a strange twist, the lawsuit seems to claim that it can prove Johnson is lying about the rape and backs it all on the fact that Cosby is now legally blind.
The lawsuit claims that Johnson has to be lying in her memoir, which recounts a moment in 2015 when, Johnson, wrote, she encountered Cosby at an airport and he appeared to be shocked at seeing her.
False, the lawsuit says, pointing to Cosby’s failed eyesight as a reason.
“Mr. Cosby has suffered from a degenerative eye condition for years which has steadily worsened recently to the point that he is for over a year has been legally and functionally blind.”
According to criminal defense attorney Murray Richman, Cosby is playing the “blind card” because he is trying to show that he has a “disability that makes him physically incapable of doing all those things that he has alleged to have done.”
And Murray, who has represented many prominent clients, including Jay-Z, has no patience for it either, saying simply, “It’s a bulls**t defense. The jury isn’t going to buy that.”
Beverly Johnson is not the only presumed victim of sexual assault that Bill Cosby has brought legal action against. Cosby has filed suit against Tamara Green, Therese Serignese, Linda Traitz, Louisa Moritz, Barbara Bowman, Joan Tarshis, and Angela Leslie. Like his suit against Beverly Johnson, Cosby accuses them of “malicious, opportunistic, false and defamatory” claims. The documents associated with those cases claim that those accusers have done irreparable damage to Bill Cosby and his reputation.
“The honorable legacy and reputation that Mr. Cosby has long cultivated… has been tarnished. Relying solely on unsubstantiated accusations, Counterclaim Defendants have engaged in a campaign to assassinate Mr. Cosby’s reputation and character by willfully, maliciously, and falsely accusing Mr. Cosby of multi-decade-old purported sexual misconduct.”
What do you think? Has Bill Cosby been a victim of a deliberate campaign to ruin his character and, perhaps, make money off of those claims? Do you think Cosby’s blindness proves that he is incapable of the many sexual assaults he stands accused of, or do you think this is a last-ditch attempt by Cosby to salvage a reputation that is, admittedly, in tatters?
[Photo by Ethan Miller/Staff/Getty Images]
