Janice Dickinson Appeals To Have Marty Singer Added To Bill Cosby Case

Over two months after a L.A. Superior Court judge rejected Janice Dickinson’s attempt to add lawyer Marty Singer to her defamation case against Bill Cosby, her lawyers have now taken the issue up the legal food chain.

In an April 8 filing to the 2nd Appellate District, the former America’s Next Top Model judge wants Judge Debre Weintraub’s February 9 ruling in the matter dismissed. If successful, this move (read it here) would see the Hollywood heavyweight attorney added to the ongoing nearly year-long case as a defendant.

“Judge Weintraub got it right in February when she struck all the allegations against Mr. Singer,” Singer’s lawyer Andrew Brettler of Lavely & Singer told Deadline today. “We’re very confident that the Court of Appeal will affirm her decision.” Dickinson’s lead attorney Lisa Bloom also said Tuesday “we are taking this step to continue to fight for every possible legal redress for our client Janice Dickinson.”

Dickinson first sued Cosby last May for defamation for the statements Singer made to the media in late 2014 calling her story of a 1982 drugging and rape by Cosby a “lie” and that Dickinson was a “liar.” Cosby and his long time lawyer Singer parted company in October 2015. Not long after, Dickinson added Singer as a defendant in an amended complaint in her case.

In early November last year, Judge Weintraub cranked up the volume on the matter and ordered depositions in the case for both Cosby and Singer. However, on November 12, the 2nd District Court of Appeals laid down a temporary stay on the scheduled depos. All sides then filed more briefs in the action, with Dickinson wanting the stay lifted and Cosby’s team wanting it kept in place. The stay was lifted but a decision from the Appeal Court then threw the whole thing back to Judge Weintraub to make a ruling on adding Singer and the anti-SLAPP motion from Cosby’s side – which she did most recently on March 29.

In that ruling the L.A. Superior Court judge ruled that while the November 18 correspondence to two media organizations was covered by the anti-SLAPP statute, the more widely distributed November 19 statements from Singer about Dickinson’s allegations of sexual assault were not – setting the stage for a trial in the matter. Right now both sides are expected back in the downtown courtroom on May 17 for a status conference.