Bill Cosby‘s legal woes worsened with the release of a 2005 deposition where the accused sexual predator appeared to have admitted to using drugs to bed women against their will. Although the lawsuit was settled in 2006, Cosby’s legal team says the partial release of the formerly sealed deposition has damaged their client’s case.
The New York Times reports that the Cosby’s legal team is mounting a defense against the various reports that the statements in the deposition seemed to confirm. From their side, Cosby did not admit to any wrongdoing, and that the use of drugs during sex was a mutual choice.
From the Times:
In Mr. Cosby’s first public defense since parts of his deposition in a 2005 lawsuit became public this month, his lawyers said he had actually “admitted to nothing more than being one of the many people who introduced Quaaludes into their consensual sex life in the 1970s.”
“Quaaludes were a highly popular recreational drug in the 1970s, labeled in slang as ‘disco biscuits,’ and known for their capacity to increase sexual arousal,” the court filing said.
The lawyers cited several news articles that they contended had misconstrued Mr. Cosby’s testimony, and they blamed the woman who had accused him of drugging and molesting her in 2005, Andrea Constand, a Temple University basketball manager. The case was settled in 2006, and the parties agreed to keep documents from the case confidential as part of the settlement.
Ms. Constand, the lawyers said, was now trying to “smear the defendant.”
Cosby’s lawyers filed the motion in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennslyvania on Tuesday in hopes to halt the release of the entire deposition. The judge in the case unsealed a memo in the court file that had portions of the deposition and Cosby’s testimony related to the drugs. The lawyers say that their client’s words have been twisted and that any report suggesting Cosby used the drugs without consent is false.
Constand’s lawyer asked for the release of the full deposition and stated that the confidentiality agreement had been violated by Cosby and his legal team which prompted their side to seek a public airing of the facts.
The entire transcript was released to the Times and other news outlets last week as it was assumed that the judge’s release earlier in the month made the deposition public record.
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Photo: ABC News
