Cosby’s insurer settles former model’s suit before deposition

PHILADELPHIA — Bill Cosby’s insurance company has settled another lawsuit filed by a female accuser a week before the imprisoned comedian was set to give a deposition in the case, prompting Cosby to call the insurer “complicit” in a scheme to destroy him.

Former model Chloe Goins had accused Cosby of drugging and molesting her at a party at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles in 2008, when was about 18.

Cosby in a statement Tuesday accused American International Group Inc. of “egregious behavior” in settling what he called a “frivolous” suit, and said he could prove he was in New York at the time. Goins’ lawsuit was filed in state court in Los Angeles.

Goins’ lawyers, Craig Goldenfarb and Spencer Kuvin, said their client was she pleased with the confidential settlement. An AIG spokesman said the insurer had no comment.

“Mr. Cosby’s legal team provided medical records, which showed that Mr. Cosby had undergone eye surgery and was in New York, recuperating at his home, at the time of the alleged events,” he said in the statement, issued by spokesman Andrew Wyatt.

Cosby, 81 is serving a three- to 10-year prison term after a Pennsylvania jury last year found he drugged and molested a woman who worked at his alma mater, Temple University, in 2004.

Earlier this month, AIG settled defamation lawsuits filed by seven other Cosby accusers in Massachusetts, after losing a legal battle over their duty to defend Cosby in those cases.

Cosby had at least $37 million in insurance coverage through AIG, including two $1 million homeowner’s policies and a $35 million umbrella policy protecting him from personal injury or property damage claims. AIG argued that the policies did not cover sexual misconduct claims.

However, a federal appeals court, in a 2018 decision written by former Supreme Court Justice David Souter, who was filling in on the court, said the defamation claims were distinct from the sexual misconduct claims underlying them, and must be covered.

The Massachusetts plaintiffs said Cosby and his agents had labeled them liars in public comments denying their accusations.

AIG declined to comment Tuesday on its decision to settle the lawsuits or on Cosby’s ire.

Cosby, in the statement, called AIG “complicit in this scheme to destroy me and my family.”

“I can only imagine how terribly they’re treating their policyholders, who don’t have my means and my resource,” Cosby said in the statement.