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Comedian Bill Cosby was sued for defamation on Wednesday in
Massachusetts by a sexual assault accuser who says he branded her a
liar in public statements made through his representatives denying her
allegations of abuse.
The eight-page complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in western
Massachusetts, is believed to be the second lawsuit arising from a
wave of sexual misconduct allegations against Cosby, 77, by more than
a dozen women in recent months.
The plaintiff in Wednesday's suit, Tamara Green has said Cosby
sexually assaulted her at her apartment after drugging her during
lunch at a Los Angeles cafe in the early 1970s.
Neither Cosby, who resides in western Massachusetts, nor his attorney
were immediately available for comment.
The lawsuit says statements of denial by an attorney and a publicist
representing Cosby in response to her allegations in recent articles
published in Newsweek magazine and the Washington Post were false and
defamatory.
The suit, which seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages,
asserts that Cosby himself is liable for the conduct of his legal and
press representatives.
The complaint was filed on Green's behalf by Joseph Cammarata, an
attorney who initially represented Paula Jones in her sexual
harassment suit in the late 1990s against then-President Bill Clinton.
In a statement, he said the defamation suit provides a new avenue for
Green, and others accusing Cosby of sexually assaulting them decades
ago, to bring their allegations to court without the complications
posed by statutes of limitations.
Credit: LOS ANGELES (Reuters)
