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Months before Bill Cosby’s sexual assault trial, one of his daughters is publicly defending him saying that he has been unfairly characterized as a rapist.

In a statement given to The Hollywood ReporterEvin Cosby stressed that her comedian father is innocent of the charges brought against him and that he “deserves better” than the way he is being treated.

“I am his fourth daughter. He raised me to go to college, start my own business, and be my own woman. He is helping me raise my children and teach them family values. I know that my father loves me, loves my sisters and my mother,” she said. “He loves and respects women. He is not abusive, violent or a rapist.”

Evin added that the media’s cruelty has been hard on her and her family:

“I have two amazing children who love their grandfather. I already work hard as a single mother, with no full-time help, and with a career in fashion design, I am lucky that I have supportive friends that I call family because my children and I need that support. The public persecution of my dad, my kids’ grandfather, and the cruelty of the media and those who speak out branding my father a “rapist” without ever knowing the truth and who shame our family and our friends for defending my dad, makes all of this so much worse for my family and my children. When people are so quick to cast hate and make accusations of horrific violence against my dad, they are callous in their carelessness about the harm they are causing to others.”

She also insuiniated that her father couldn’t be a rapist because he created empowering roles for women and tackled hard topics in his work:

“My dad broke barriers and raised the conscious of America on important topics, especially for the advancement of women. On The Cosby Show he only depicted women as smart and accomplished. On The Cosby Show and on A Different World he took on then-taboo subjects like menstrual cycles and rape, and even did a show on AIDS before anyone else would bring it up…He is helping me raise my children and teach them family values. I know that my father loves me, loves my sisters and my mother. He loves and respects women. He is not abusive, violent or a rapist. Sure, like many celebrities tempted by opportunity, he had his affairs, but that was between him and my mother. They have worked through it and moved on, and I am glad they did for them and for our family.”

Obviously no one can fault a daughter for defending her father wholeheartedly, but just because a man created the empowering and iconic role of Claire Huxtable doesn’t mean he isn’t capable of rape—one has nothing to do with the other. That, and a man who has admitted under oath that he has repeatedly cheated on and humiliated his wife for decades, is not a man who truly loves or respects women. Most important, while Cosby may be a great father and grandfather in his youngest daughter’s eyes, that doesn’t diminish his ability to be a serial sexual predator.

As we previously reported, Cosby is set to go on trial for the 2004 sexual assault of Andrea Constand, a former Temple employee who accused Cosby of drugging her and raping her while she was visiting him at one of homes. According to Cosby, he said the drugging and sexual contact was consensual. He has plead not guilty. 

His trial will begin on June 5.

Constand is not the only woman who has accused Cosby of assault—in the past couple of years, close to 40 women have come forward saying they were assaulted by the billionaire comedian.

Read Cosby’s statement in its entirety here.

SOURCE: The Hollywood Reporter

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