Janice Dickinson sues Cosby for defamation

Bill Cosby can add another lawsuit to the growing pile filed against him by women who claim he drugged and raped them in decades past.

Model Janice Dickinson, who went public with her accusation against Cosby in November 2014, more than three decades after the alleged episode, filed suit in Los Angeles Wednesday, said her lawyer, Lisa Bloom.

Dickinson, 60, is claiming defamation, false light and infliction of emotional distress, Bloom said.

Like many other Cosby accusers, Dickinson can't pursue criminal charges against Cosby because the statute of limitations has expired. So she's suing in civil court.

There's already one federal lawsuit filed against Cosby by three accusers in federal court in Massachusetts (where Cosby lives), alleging he and his legal team defamed them by denying their claims of sexual assault.

In addition, Bloom's mother, women's rights attorney Gloria Allred, represents more than a dozen Cosby accusers, some of whom have filed other civil lawsuits. One of them also is pursuing criminal charges in New Jersey, where there is no statute of limitations for rape.

Bloom says Dickinson's suit asserts that Cosby's Hollywood lawyer, Martin Singer, defamed her by calling her a "liar" when she publicly accused Cosby last year, after several other women had already stepped forward to say they had been assaulted by Cosby.

The suit claims Cosby and his legal team damaged her reputation by putting her in a "false light" in public, and that she is the victim of "intentional infliction of emotional distress."

Dickinson says she met with Cosby in a Lake Tahoe hotel room in 1982 to talk about a job offer. She says he offered her a glass of wine and before she passed out she says she remembers him raping her.

She kept the encounter secret for decades, saying she was afraid of being labeled a "slut," and blames it for her troubles with substance abuse and self-loathing.

By the time she went on Entertainment Tonight and on CNN last year to talk about Cosby, she was emotional, furious and profane. She called Cosby a "pig," a "monster" and a "rapist," among other epithets.

Cosby has not been charged with a crime. He and his legal team have denied all wrongdoing but have said little in response to allegations from more than 40 women so far who say he assaulted them in episodes dating to the late 1960s. His team did not comment on the latest development.

After Dickinson went public last year, Singer issued a statement calling her story "a lie." He said she failed to mention the encounter with Cosby in her own memoir and in an interview in 2002.

"She asked for a retraction (after Singer's statement), he refused, so she is suing," Bloom said.

Bloom added that Dickinson may have an advantage under California law because the "evidence code allows us to bring in other accusers to support her claim."

Cosby has sought to avoid being forced to confront any of his accusers in court. One suit filed against him in 2005 had a dozen women willing to testify against him, but it was settled and they never got the chance.

He was interviewed on Good Morning America last week but dodged questions about the allegations and was mostly incoherent.