Judge tosses defamation suit against Bill Cosby
6th March 2017 · 0 Comments
By Stacy M. Brown
Contributing Writer
(NNPA Newswire) — Last month, a federal judge in Massachusetts struck down a defamation suit against Bill Cosby in a ruling that the legendary comedian’s attorneys said reaffirms the fundamental right for him or anyone else to defend against public accusations.
“This is another in a line of recent developments, vindicating Mr. Cosby’s right to defend himself in the face of an onslaught of unverified accusations,” the lawyers said in a statement.
The case stems from the accusations of former actress Katherine McKee, who in an interview to the international press in December 2014, accused Cosby of attacking her in the mid-1970s.
When Cosby’s lawyer tried to defend him by demanding a retraction of the story, McKee sued him for defamation, Cosby attorneys said.
The Massachusetts court ruling is among several dismissals granted in Cosby’s favor.
In December, a federal appeals court announced a similar decision in the case of Hill vs. Cosby, affirming the dismissal of a very similar lawsuit.
Renita Hill of Pittsburgh, Pa., had alleged that Cosby drugged and molested her for years, starting when she was 16, when she worked with him on a children’s TV show in the Steel City beginning in 1983.
Hill went public with her allegations in November 2014, after other accusers had already stepped forward.
She filed suit after Cosby’s lawyers denied any wrongdoing and Hill argued that the star defamed her with his denials, particularly by suggesting she was lying and trying to extort him.
“These two decisions should also pave the way to the final dismissal of the remaining civil actions pending against Mr. Cosby including the appellate proceeding challenging a partial dismissal of the action brought by reality television personality Janice Dickinson,” said Cosby’s lead civil lawyer Angela C. Agrusa. “This is the correct outcome. This order, taken in conjunction with the recent decision in the Hill case, amount to a powerful statement of the law.”
Agrusa continued: “It is paramount in a free society to be able to insist on one’s innocence in the face of serious public accusations, and today’s ruling reinforces that fundamental right.”
Dickinson’s suit began in 2015 when the former model sued Cosby, and then-lawyer Marty Singer, who has since been dismissed from the case, for defamation.
She claimed the men “publicly branded her a liar” after she gave a 2014 TV interview in which she said Cosby drugged and raped her in the 1980s.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Debre Weintraub in March granted in part, and denied in part, an anti-SLAPP motion to dismiss the suit, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The judge dismissed claims related to a letter Singer sent to Good Morning America, finding those statements were protected by the litigation privilege.
However, she denied the motion tied to a statement Singer made to the press.
Agrusa argued that decision was in error and the entire case should have been thrown out.
She also noted that the 3rd Circuit recently affirmed a district court’s decision to dismiss with prejudice a similar defamation claim filed by Hill.
This article originally published in the March 6, 2017 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
