Bill O’Reilly is using a new article about an old story to cast doubt on one of the women who accused him of improper treatment at Fox News, but it’s not exactly a bombshell. Perquita Burgess alleged that when she worked at the cable network in 2008, the former “O’Reilly Factor” host made sexual comments to her, including referring to her as “Hot Chocolate.” According to a Newsmax article published Sunday night, Burgess was arrested for filing a false report of a crime in 2015. The article says that this revelation of a two-year-old incident “has raised serious doubts as to her credibility,” but does it really?
O’Reilly, who denies the allegations against him, tweeted the article Sunday night, saying, “Sorry to have to post this article but it is necessary to expose the evil in play in this country. More to come.” He was apparently so sorry that he tweeted it again Monday morning.
Please check out https://t.co/ZNSXkWqnIX for expose about a person who attacked me. Very telling. https://t.co/X5FRv8k07c
— Bill O’Reilly (@billoreilly) September 18, 2017
Now this “evil” that O’Reilly speaks of isn’t exactly earth-shattering. According police paperwork reportedly viewed by Newsmax, Burgess had been accused of calling the Detroit police on her then-boyfriend, saying that he hit her with a gun, and when police arrived, she said it didn’t happen, that there was no gun and no assault. The boyfriend reportedly told officers that Burgess had threatened to call the police saying he hit her with a gun.
Burgess’ lawyer, Lisa Bloom, addressed this matter with Newsmax, alleging that Burgess and her boyfriend both felt that the false report charges “were based on a misunderstanding and were not pursued by the police or prosecutors.” A search of local court records did not show any open or closed criminal cases against Burgess.
So this big “evil” that O’Reilly is trying to “expose” is an incident where a woman reported domestic violence, and then changed her story when the cops showed up. Is this evidence that she’s made false accusations in the past? It could be. It could also be a case of a domestic violence victim being too afraid to move forward with a case. As a former prosecutor, I’ve seen that happen all too many times.
O’Reilly says there is more to come and for him to convincingly expose the “evil” here, he’ll need it.
[Image via Fox News screengrab]
This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.
