Written By: Tommy Lightfoot Garrett
Bill Cosby was forced to give a deposition in the Judy Huth case against him, and he had to be deposed by her attorney Gloria Allred, which he fought hard to resist. In a filing made Monday by his attorneys to the California Court of Appeals, Cosby wants the depositions ordered by an L.A. Superior Court judge on November 2 in Janice Dickinson’s defamation case put on long-term hold – partially because he says his former lawyer Marty Singer didn’t say anything to defame the former America’s Next Top Model judge, who claims that Cosby raped her.
In more recent statements and in her lawsuit of May of this year, the former supermodel says she was pressured by publisher HarperCollins to omit the incident for fear of being sued. Having once brought up the assault on The Howard Stern Show in 2006, Dickinson went public again last year as dozens of women began to make claims of similar harrowing occurrences with The Cosby Show actor. “Defendant’s then counsel disclosed those inconsistent facts and thus the conclusion he draws from Plaintiff s contradicting herself is not actionable defamation,” adds this week’s filing by Cosby’s lawyers, noting two sets of statements by his former attorney Marty Singer late in November 2014, one of which called Dickinson a “liar.”
Following Judge Weintraub’s ruling, Cosby’s former attorney, Hollywood powerhouse Martin Singer has been added to the suit and is also being compelled to submit to a deposition.
Dickinson’s lawyer Lisa Bloom submitted a filing on November 20 asking that the stay be lifted and the previously ordered depos be allowed to go forward.
Meanwhile, Singer is asking that the judge in the case be tossed and replaced.
Though Singer was not involved in the previous deposition, On October 9, Cosby was deposed for several hours in Boston in the Judy Huth case. The plaintiff alleges that the actor sexually assaulted her 41 years ago at the Playboy Mansion when she was 15 years old. The Huth deposition could become public in late December if the judge in that case decides to make it public.
In the Dickinson case, the Appeals Court is expected to make a determination on the matter at hand in the next few weeks.
Written By: Tommy Lightfoot Garrett
Photographs are Courtesy: AP
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