Cosby's lawyer: Sexual assault allegations "increasingly ridiculous"

An attorney for Bill Cosby responded Friday to accusations the comedian drugged and sexually assaulted several women, calling the allegations "completely illogical."

"The new, never-before-heard claims from women who have come forward in the past two weeks with unsubstantiated, fantastical stories about things they say occurred 30, 40, or even 50 years ago have escalated far past the point of absurdity," Cosby's lawyer, Martin D. Singer, said in a statement released Friday night.

Singer said the women's allegations were "becoming increasingly ridiculous, and it is completely illogical that so many people would have said nothing, done nothing, and made no reports to law enforcement or asserted civil claims if they thought they had been assaulted over a span of so many years."

At least ten women have made their accusations public since early November. The scandal has prompted several companies to cancel projects they had planned with Cosby, including an NBC sitcom and a stand-up comedy performance to be shown on Netflix. Venues in six states around the U.S. have canceled or postponed live performances.

Despite the growing outcry, Cosby received a standing ovation from a sold-out crowd Friday night in Melbourne, Florida. A handful of protesters gathered outside but there were no incidents during the show.

Cosby has never faced criminal charges and a civil suit filed in 2005 was eventually settled out of court, although more than a dozen women said they were willing to testify.

"There has never been a shortage of lawyers willing to represent people with claims against rich, powerful men," Singer's statement continued, "so it makes no sense that not one of these new women who just came forward for the first time now ever asserted a legal claim back at the time they allege they had been sexually assaulted."

Singer characterized the scandal as "media vilification."

"This situation is an unprecedented example of the media's breakneck rush to run stories without any corroboration or adherence to traditional journalistic standards," Singer said. "Over and over again, we have refuted these new unsubstantiated stories with documentary evidence, only to have a new uncorroborated story crop up out of the woodwork. When will it end?"