UPDATED, 5:03 PM: The strategy of Bill Cosby’s new lawyers is becoming clear: attack the accusers. With dozens and dozens of women alleging that the comedian sexually assaulted or drugged them over the decades, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan today went after Beverly Johnson for defamation. This comes less than a week after Cosby’s team did the same thing to seven women in federal court in Massachusetts.
Today’s filing against model and actress Johnson in Los Angeles Superior Court (read it here) seeks punitive damages and an injunction preventing her from “continuing to publish her defamatory statements.” Johnson said, initially in a Vanity Fair article and in subsequent interviews, that Cosby drugged her with spiked cappucino at his New York home during the 1980s. It claims she “is no stranger to making salacious allegations even before her false allegations about Mr.Cosby. She previously made allegations of abuse against two of her boyfriends, neither of which resulted in charges or any finding of liability.” It adds that Johnson “has repeated her lies about Mr. Cosby drugging her to every media publication, newspaper, magazine or TV show that will hear her,” including The View, Dr. Phil and Good Morning America.
PREVIOUSLY, December 14: The once-beloved comedian today says that Tamara Green, Therese Serignese, Linda Traitz, Louisa Moritz, Barbara Bowman, Joan Tarshis, and Angela Leslie cost him his comeback. In a court documents Monday, the widely accused Bill Cosby asserts he “neither drugged nor sexually assaulted” the seven women. In fact, Cosby now is suing them back in federal court in Massachusetts for a wide range of damages and injunctions — including publicly “retracting and correcting” their accusations of sexual assault. And he is convinced it was their words and actions that cost him high-profile gigs on NBC and Netflix.
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“Each Counterclaim Defendant induced both NBC and Netflix to postpone or cancel their contracts with Mr. Cosby by engaging in a campaign to assassinate Mr. Cosby’s reputation and character by willfully, maliciously, and falsely accusing Mr. Cosby of multi-decade-old purported sexual misconduct in an opportunistic attempt to extract financial gain from their allegations,” states the counterclaim filing today from Cosby (read it here), who is scheduled to give depositions in the case soon.
A week before it was set to premiere, Netflix pulled the plugged on an already filmed special with Cosby on November 18, 2014, as the allegations of rape, drugging and more began to rise and rise. The next day, on November 19, NBC, the former home of The Cosby Show, hit halt on a proposed family sitcom with Cosby. Just days later, Cosby’s now-former lawyer Marty Singer called the then-recent accusations from the women in this case “the latest example of people coming out of the woodwork with unsubstantiated or fabricated stories about my client.” Such statements became the basis of the defamation case going on now in New England.
A case that today Cosby not only denied but flipped around to be about him.
“Counterclaim Defendants’ false statements were defamatory because they held Mr. Cosby up to hatred, distrust, contempt, disgrace, scorn, and ridicule among considerable and respectable segments of the community, including from the media coverage and public reaction to Counterclaim Defendants’ false and defamatory statements,” the 89-page filing adds. Of course, the part of the risk that Cosby is taking here is he may be required to testify in this case and could find himself answering some very tough questions and accusations under oath.
“If anyone is surprised by Cosby’s actions today, they shouldn’t be,” said the accusers’ lawyer Joseph Cammarata Monday “He’s taken a page out of the defense attorney’s playbook in an effort to shift the focus of this legitimate inquiry. It is curious that he has filed a claim only against these seven women, when there are scores of other women who have made similar allegations of sexual abuse and assault against Mr. Cosby. My clients remain resolute in their desire to have their day in court, sooner rather than later, and they each expect that their good name and reputation will be restored.”
Today also saw Cosby stripped of yet another honorary degree, this time from Boston University. With more than 50 women now accusing Cosby of sexual assault, the school said his alleged actions “demonstrates that his character fails to reflect the integrity and virtues that the university values and esteems.”
This comes as Cosby battles to stop already ordered depositions by himself and 
Singer in a defamation case by Janice Dickinson. The former America’s Next Top Model judge alleges that Cosby raped her in 1982 and that Singer branded her a “liar” last year when she brought the incident up. Dickinson took the matter to court in May, and in the fall she filed an amended complaint now formally naming Singer a defendant. “Having been unsuccessful in his attempt to get the Massachusetts accusers’ claims thrown out, Bill Cosby’s next aggressive legal move is to countersue them,” noted Dickinson’s attorney Lisa Bloom today. “At least this ensures that the accusers will get the day in court they have been seeking.”
As the LosAngeles D.A. continues to review a LAPD investigation of claims that Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted then-18-year-old model Chloe Goins at a party at the Playboy Mansion in 2008, another potentially damning deposition could become public soon. The comic gave several sworn hours of testimony in October in Boston in the civil case of Judy Huth, who claims Cosby molested her at the Playboy Mansion in 1974 when she was 15. Like the explosive and now-unsealed 2005 deposition in the Andrea Constand case, where Cosby admitted to having prescriptions for Quaaludes in the 1970s and that he intended to give those pills to women he wanted to have sex with, the Huth deposition could become public next week. That’s all a matter of if the judge in the once-Singer-conducted case deems that material private or not.
In the case that saw the countersuit today and seeks a wide ranging confidentiality agreement and protective order, Cosby is represented by a legion of lawyers from L.A. firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP and Springfield MA’s Egan, Flanagan & Cohen, PC.
Oh boo-hoo. Poor Bill Cosby. He was accurately exposed as a serial rapist.
All of that “hatred, distrust, contempt, disgrace, scorn, and ridicule among considerable and respectable segments of the community” is well deserved.
He belongs in prison for the rest of his life. He’s a psychotic violent asshole.
lol
You just proved his case.
Could you tell me in what way Cosby was violent?
Slow the fuck down , you have no evidence yet you have already found the man guilty.
This is disgusting – he’s actually & sadly reminding me of Donald Trump with this doubling, tripling, quaDRUpling down.
Cosby should borrow Trump’s line: “I’m lashing because they weren’t nice to me.”
Only 7 out of 57? Hmmm.
I’m willing to believe that 7 are lying and 50 are telling the truth.
It’s a separate lawsuit. The 7 are the ones charging him with Slander. They are included in the 58 who allege he sexually assaulted them; however, the 58 cannot sue because of the Statute of Limitations.
THEY didn’t cost you anything, Cosby! HE did it YOURSELF by not being able to keep it in your pants! Go ahead and sue the women and let’s see who comes out on top this time!!!
good bill, go on the attack .go out fighting
good satch, be a troll.
“Judy Huth, who claims Cosby molested her at the Playboy Mansion in 1974 when she was 15.” how did a 15 year old get into Playboy mansion?
She had a couple of photos taken of herself and Cosby when she managed to get on the grounds. They were in the gamehouse, a building separate from the mansion. She wasn’t 15 and it wasn’t 1974.
Nice,
If you read the details, it specifically states he told her to not tell anyone she was 15 but rather, if they ask, to tell them she was 17.
Actually, it’s been recorded that Cosby asked them to say they were 19 and they were served drinks. That’s odd since the minimum drinking age in California was and is 21. Cosby seems to be guilty of many things, but the reporting and comments continue to be confusing and sometimes absurd. By the way, why isn’t Huth’s companion involve in this litigation?
Which would have been pointless.
That’s what I was thinking ,
Cosby has never been criminally convicted, or even charged. I find it highly suspect that none…not any of these women ever filed criminal complaints. I find it equally as curious as to why they are suddenly piling on….sounds like a money hunt to me….after all Cosby has very deep pockets
What a terrible troll you are. Doesn’t Cosby pay you enough? So transparent, try again, ok Mr MALE troll?
if They don’t have any evidence, it seems like They are after money and Hoping for an out of court settlement, as no jury can agree
without actual evidence and given the trial by media damage.
If you study or are aware of the traditional stigma of rape, you will understand. Only recently have FBI guidelines defined rape clearly. Society’s mores at that time were unclear and didn’t get the proper support of institutions. Unfortunately, the statute of limitations has run out on most/ all of these cases. It would be interesting to see what truths would emerge under oath. As for the charge of a ‘money hunt’ that seems the only justice that could be attained in our present legal systems. Justice should be served somehow at that is a legal recourse.
His lawyers should be disbarred. They should be counter-sued along with Cosby. There is no way he will ever go to court against these women. He is doing this to try and get some good publicity before he dies which will hopefully be soon. He’s Guilty of every single thing he’s been accused of.
Have they any proof? Have you? Why isn’t he allowed to defend himself?
It’s an all or nothing move for this criminal. He needs to sue all of the women…..or else he’s admitting that some are telling the truth. All strategies lead to his downfall!
My impression of the courts in ca is that only the participants of the filings are allowed to read it at the courthouse records, does that include the media….or not. How would anyone get a copy of the documents and publish it .wouldn’t it be copyright priv. as the maker… Or not. Or only some
cases can be sealed. It’s not personal property, it becomes public property once it’s filed, even tho a person wrote it as an original intellectual property. It’s confusing.
“The authors of briefs filed with the California Courts hold valid, enforceable copyrights in their briefs, and …
He’s suing them to bankrupt them because now they have to hire lawyers to fight, even if he doesn’t win. Oldest dirty trick in the book that people with money do all the time when they become desperate to assert their power.
Not in this case. The women’s attorneys love this and they will defend the women for free and counter-sue Cosby to get him to pay their clients and them a lot more than they would have gotten before Cosby did this idiotic maneuver. He is being taken advantage of by sharks who are charging him $1,500/hour and they convinced him he has to spend millions of dollars “to go after these lying women” and Cosby the moron believes his lying lawyers. He is pathetic he is beyond help so let him waste his money. He can take these women to court but he will lose every single case. Then they counter-sue him and he is forced to settle to pay them a lot to get out of court.
Now, Jello just makes me sad.
Throughout this entire thing Cosby never once denied the allegations. That is a pretty powerful reaction to have that clearly points to what he feels responsible to. If someone (or 50 people) accused you of doing something to them and you know you didn’t, wouldn’t you hold a huge press conference (because you’re famous and you can) and say the allegations are untrue? He never did deny that any of it happened. And, only now he is kind of saying it in the form of a counter suit, but not in the form of a separate statement outside the confines of the lawsuit. That’s just weird.
Why do you suppose that he is being sued for defamation? Wake up, please.
Are we to believe that BC stopped this behavior? Where are the women in 2011, 2012? He did this so long it was habit. So why hasn’t anyone been smart enough to get this on a cell phone or hidden camera? It must be out there. After what has been alleged his behavior, he didn’t stop and instead of being Client No. Whatever, kept up the supposed casting couch. No pimp ever set BC up and got it on tape? BC never got sloppy? His attacks were common knowledge in some circles. Let’s see the tapes or is the price too high?
You all are sad. Has anyone checked the slanderous and criminal histories of many of these women. I’m saying some of you need to really get your facts straight and stop following the media hype. Look at the political timing of the event. The bottom line is that he cheated on Camille. That is a fact but to act as though he did ALL of the things accused… Please. He may not have been faithful in his early years but what star was in the 60s and 70s. Drugs and sex were the big thing back then. “…let he that is without sin cast the first stone.” Just follow the depositions of the “victims” and see how rehearsed their statements are. Many of them have already recanted when that legal team started going after them and fighting back. Hmmm.