Cosby tries to get lawsuit thrown out
Bill Cosby sent his lawyers to court in Massachusetts Friday to ask a federal judge to throw out a lawsuit from three of his accusers who say he defamed them when he denied raping them decades ago.
In a motion to dismiss, he once again denied "each and every one of the allegations of sexual misconduct" made against him by Tamara Green, Therese Serignese and Linda Traitz, three of more than 30 women who have come forward in recent months to accuse Cosby of drugging and raping them in episodes dating as far back as the 1960s.
Cosby has denied all wrongdoing, has not been charged with a crime, and can't be prosecuted on most of the allegations because the statutes of limitations have long expired.
Meanwhile, yet another woman accuser has emerged, a former model now named Heidi Thomas, who told CNN this week that Cosby sexually assaulted her in 1984 in Reno during a drama coaching session, after he gave her a glass of wine and she became groggy.
The three accusers who filed suit in December in Springfield, Mass., near where Cosby has a home, are trying a different tactic against Cosby: to get a judgment through a civil suit. They say Cosby defamed them by in effect calling them liars when he denied he raped them.
"This lawsuit is a misuse of the law of defamation to attempt an end run around the relevant statutes of limitations for the alleged assaults," Cosby's lawyers, Robert LoBue and Francis Dibble, declare in their motion to dismiss.
"The law does not require that one stand idly by while he is publicly attacked. Instead, the law entitles an individual who is accused of serious wrongdoing to rebut the allegations without facing defamation action."
Green, a California lawyer, says Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted her in the 1970s. Serignese says Cosby drugged and raped her in 1976. Traitz alleges he tried to drug her and then sexually groped her in 1970.
In their motion, Cosby's lawyers provided a list of reasons why the three accusers' claims should be dismissed, including constitutionally protected speech, the right to self-defense, and lack of evidence that Cosby's statements through his lawyers and publicists were actually defamatory.
Lawyers for the three accusers, who did not immediately respond to requests for comment, have until March 20 to file a reply to Cosby's motion to dismiss.
