That is not a coverup. This stuff had been reported to the police by the victim. All Meyer had was a denial and something his wife told him that the alleged victim said and he had no way of knowing if it was true. He probably went too far at the press conference, but spreading second hand gossip to the media was not the right move either. The better answer would have been “I do not know whether or not there was abuse. This is currently being investigated by authorities.” However, saying “my wife told me that she said” to the media after the person denied it really would not be the right thing to do... especially given that this woman had refused to press charges in the past.
No, despite what our current media thinks, spreading allegations you cannot confirm the truth of, especially second hand, to the public is not proper.... and more especially given there is an actual police investigation looking into to determine if this is a sham or if this Zach Smith is a sorry SOB deserving of jail time.