Defamation

Confidentiality Agreements Can't Help Cosby

A discovery dispute gets interesting.

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Bill Cosby

Bill Cosby

Good news for the seven women suing Bill Cosby — their discovery request for a file The Cos didn’t want them to see has been granted.

Tamara Green, Therese Serignese, Linda Traitz, Louisa Moritz, Barbara Bowman, Joan Tarshis, and Angela Leslie are suing the scandal-plagued comedian for defamation. After the women’s allegations of sexual assault at the hands of Cosby were made public, Cosby denied the claims and in the process made unflattering comments which led to this lawsuit, filed in 2014. Cosby has countersued for defamation, claiming the allegations of sexual assault are false.

Central to the case is the question of whether the claims of sexual assault are true. To bolster this assertion, the women were seeking information related to the lawsuit Andrea Constand settled with Cosby. Constand settled similar claims against the comedian in 2006. Constand’s claims are the ones Pennsylvania authorities charged Bill Cosby with — just two days before the statute of limitations ran out. Variety has the details of this discovery dispute:

As part of discovery for their litigation, they [the plaintiffs] subpoenaed the case file for Dolores Troiani, the attorney who represented Constand, a Temple University employee who sued Cosby in 2005, alleging sexual assault and other claims. The next year, Constand reached a confidential settlement agreement with Cosby.

It should be noted Troiani did not object to the subpoena, just Cosby’s attorneys.

U.S. District Judge Anita Brody wrote that “an agreement between two parties to keep materials confidential cannot block the disclosure of those materials to third parties in discovery.”

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So while the details of the settlement will not be released according to the terms of the ruling, the materials related to the plaintiffs and other witnesses will be discoverable. Judge Brody also found the discovery of the case file would not negatively impact Cosby’s other legal troubles:

Brody rejected his attorneys’ argument that disclosure of the case file would “assist the prosecution and impair his ability to get an impartial jury” in the criminal case because the Montgomery County, Pa., district attorney already has a copy of the file.

Cosby is still seeking to have the criminal case against him dismissed, but it is safe to say this is far from the last legal development in these cases. This is what Hannibal Buress hath wrought.

Judge Grants Bill Cosby Accusers Access to Andrea Constand’s Case File [Variety]

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