Attorney gets OK to depose Cosby in civil case
A West Palm Beach lawyer could become the first to depose Bill Cosby since the 81-year-old disgraced comedian, once known as “America’s Dad,” was sent to prison last month after being convicted of sexual assault charges.
A California judge on Friday gave attorney Spencer Kuvin the go-ahead to interview Cosby on behalf of Chloe Goins, a 27-year-old model who claims the actor drugged her and sexually assaulted her at a 2008 party hosted by Hugh Hefner at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles.
Kuvin said he was introduced to Goins, who lives in San Diego, through a contact he has in the entertainment industry. He teamed with a Los Angeles attorney to pursue the civil lawsuit against Cosby.
By the end of the year, Kuvin said he hopes to interview Cosby at SCI Phoenix, a prison outside Philadelphia where he is serving a three- to 10-year sentence. Cosby was convicted in April of three counts of aggravated indecent assault for drugging and sexually assaulting former Temple University administrator Andrea Constand in 2004. Cosby was the Philadelphia school’s most famous alum.
With Cosby pledging to appeal his conviction, Kuvin said it is likely the former actor will invoke his 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination during a deposition.
But, he said, doing so could be a “double-edged sword.” If, for instance, Cosby invokes his constitutional right to remain silent when asked whether he has ever met Goins, it could be inferred that he refused to answer because it would incriminate him. At least that’s the argument Kuvin said he would make when he plays excerpts from the deposition to a jury.
The case is far from being presented to a jury. Action in Kuvin’s civil lawsuit, first filed in 2015, was stayed pending the outcome of Cosby’s criminal prosecution in Norristown, Pa. On Friday, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lawrence Cho lifted the stay.
Goins, a former Las Vegas dancer, was charged last year with attempting to bring heroin into a San Diego jail. The charges were dropped, Kuvin said.
She is among dozens of women who claim Cosby plied them with drugs and then assaulted them. Many of the allegations, however, date back as long as 40 years. That is far beyond the statute of limitations for civil litigation much less criminal prosecution.
Los Angeles police declined to pursue Goins’ case because the statute of limitation had run out when she reported her claims in 2015, Kuvin said. However, Kuvin said he is hoping to use California’s unique laws that govern the statute of limitations in civil cases to keep Goins’ case alive.
A California judge in 2017 refused to dismiss Goins’ suit after Cosby’s attorneys claimed the allegations were too old. But the claim could be raised again.
Kuvin is known as a no-holdsbarred litigator. He raised eyebrows in 2009 when he asked Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Donald Hafele for permission to inspect the genitalia of billionaire convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Kuvin claimed it was relevant to his representation of several women who were suing Epstein claiming he paid them for sex at his Palm Beach mansion when they were in their teens. Hafele rejected the request.