Fox News Channel’s Geraldo Rivera expressed approval of Bill Cosby’s release from prison, adding that the comedian was “unjustly convicted” and suggested that convicted sex offender and former Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein could be next.
In an interview with Fox News reports John Roberts and Sandra Smith, Rivera said Cosby’s trial was “grotesquely unfair,” even if he agreed with the prosecution on his character.
The TV talker shared a letter he wrote to himself in 2018, in which he described Cosby as “a sexual predator who left a trail of human misery and despair.”
“Sentenced to three to ten in state pen, he had it coming,” he said, continuing to read his 2018 letter. “Still, as an attorney, I predict his conviction will be overturned. [The] judge went way over the line in allowing unrelated victim testimony.”
Rivera went on to assert: “what they did to [Cosby] was mob justice.”
“First of all, the former state [district attorney] promised that they would not bring a criminal case against him if he testified in a civil deposition,” he said. “That was an express agreement that he had with the former district attorney.”
“Number two, to bring in five unrelated victims to testify against him was so grotesquely unfair, that it just seemed to me that this was mob justice,” he added. “How is he going to get back these two years that he has lost? This never should have happened.”
When Roberts asked about how Cosby’s accusers will “get back any sense of justice,” Rivera answered, “Our hearts go out to these victims.”
“They should have gone to a prosecutor when their cases were ripe for justice,” he explained. “I am sorry that they are not getting a sense of moral fulfillment now or rehabilitation or repair for the damage that this man probably did to them, but that’s not the way the criminal justice system works.”
Rivera continued:
In our system, there’s an accuser, there’s evidence, the evidence is testified by the defense, and then, the jury or the judge rules on it. In this case, they brought in people that were unrelated to this victim. Why just five? Why not 50? Why not all 50 that you say were harmed by this monster? He may be a predator, he may be everything that the prosecution and the victims allege he is, but this is a system whereby you must try this perpetrator, or alleged perpetrator, based on the evidence that the state has amassed, and the victim’s testimony. In this case, [prosecutors] embellished [Cosby’s alleged wrongdoing] in a way that was wrongful.
“And I’ll tell you something else in my opinion,” he continued. “This will be reflected in Harvey Weinstein’s appeal as well. They may be monsters. #MeToo may have exacted righteous justice in both those cases, but it’s not the way the criminal justice system works.”
“But Bill Cosby — you can spit on him [and] do all you want, but he was unjustly convicted, in my opinion,” Rivera added.
Rivera may be on to something, as Weinstein’s attorneys did express that they were encouraged by Cosby’s release from prison.
“In reversing the conviction of Bill Cosby, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has demonstrated, once again, that no matter who a defendant may be and no matter the nature of the alleged crime, courts can be relied upon to follow the law and come to the correct decision,” said Weinstein spokesperson Juda Engelmayer in a statement, according to a report by CNN.
“This decision also reaffirms our confidence that the Appellate Division in New York will reach the similarly correct decision in Harvey Weinstein’s appeal, considering the abundance of issues that cry out for a reversal,” Engelmayer added.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
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