Nationally famous attorney and Malibu resident Gloria Allred, 76, has advocated the cause of women’s and civil rights for decades by taking on high-profile cases; she represents 33 of the 60-plus women who have accused actor/comedian Bill Cosby of drugging and raping them.
During the recent Cosby trial in Philadelphia, three of Allred’s clients testified that Cosby drugged and molested them. And, although Allred did not represent plaintiff Andrea Constand, she attended the Cosby 2017 trial that ended in a deadlocked jury, as well as the retrial that ended on April 26 with three “guilty” verdicts (three counts of indecent aggravated assault against Constand in 2004).
Cosby faces up to 10 years in prison on each count and will be sentenced in 60 to 90 days. The panel of jurors, seven men and five women, took two days to reach a decision.
At a press conference outside the courthouse just after the verdicts were read, Allred praised the jury’s decision and her clients’ “great deal of courage” to come forward with their allegations against Cosby.
“In the beginning, many were not believed. We are so happy that finally we can say, ‘Women are believed,’ and not only on MeToo, but in a court of law where they were under oath, where they testified truthfully, where they were attacked, where they were smeared, where they were denigrated and where there were attempts to discredit them,” Allred stated.
“The MeToo movement has arrived. It’s living in Montgomery County and throughout this nation,” she added, before focusing on Cosby’s legal team. “You tried; you failed—the personal attacks did not work. Bill Cosby, three words for you: guilty, guilty, guilty!”
In discussing the trial on CBS This Morning the next day, Allred explained why she hadn’t necessarily expected a guilty verdict.
“Because, first of all, at the first criminal trial, the jury deadlocked. Secondly, it’s a very high burden of proof—guilt beyond a reasonable doubt,” she said. “And in the case of a celebrity who’s on trial, such as Mr. Cosby, sometimes jurors feel they need even more proof than beyond a reasonable doubt. Sometimes they feel they need it to a virtual certainty, which is not the law.
“What made the difference,” Allred said, “was the court allowed five prior witnesses to testify.”
“In the first trial, even though the prosecution asked the court to allow 13 other accusers to be put on the stand, the court only allowed one,” Allred said. The five witnesses allowed in the second trial “were very strong.”
On May 3, USA Today reported that Bill Cosby’s wife, Camille Cosby, “lashed out at accusers, media and mob justice in a statement defending her husband.” Gloria Allred responded that Camille has “blinders on” in an effort to maintain “a fantasy about her husband’s misconduct.”
It’s taken a long time for society to finally catch up with what Allred’s been advocating all along when it comes to women’s rights. Her decades of influence helped lay the groundwork for the pivot in perspective that finally took off with #MeToo last year. “She’s been derided for years as a spotlight-seeking opportunist—and now, finally, Allred is getting her due,” Rolling Stone wrote.
In an interview with that magazine, Allred said the #MeToo movement “Is a reckoning. It’s overdue. It’s happening. There’s a significant power shift. And I hope that we’re never going back.”
“The extent and the scope of the wrongs that so many men have felt they’re entitled to inflict on women [indicate] a sense of entitlement, the arrogance of power, the belief that if a woman spoke up she wouldn’t be believed. Or that she would never speak up—she would live in fear,” Allred explained.
Long past the usual age of retirement, Allred has represented at least three Harvey Weinstein accusers, helped engineer the defeat of Roy Moore in Alabama, and testified in Nevada, Colorado and California to help successfully overturn the statutes of limitations on rape charges.
In the past, she took Governor Jerry Brown to task for not increasing the percentage of female judges in the state, represented a woman who claimed to have been molested by seven Catholic priests and represented the family of Nicole Brown Simpson in the OJ Simpson trial.
Allred’s Los Angeles law firm, Allred, Maroko & Goldberg, handles cases involving employment discrimination, harassment, wrongful termination and victims’ rights. She’s the founder and President of the Women’s Equal Rights Legal Defense and Education Fund (WERLDEF).