Cosby admitted under oath to blocking assault story
Bill Cosby testified under oath in 2005 that he gave the National Enquirer an exclusive interview about looming accusations of sexual assault against him by a Canadian woman in exchange for the tabloid’s spiking a second accuser’s story.
Excerpts released Wednesday of Cosby’s deposition from a civil lawsuit filed by Andrea Constand quote Cosby as saying he feared the public would believe her accusations of sexual assault if the Enquirer published similar claims by Beth Ferrier. Both women accused Cosby of drugging and molesting them.
“Did you ever think that if Beth Ferrier’s story was printed in the National Enquirer, (that) would make the public believe that maybe (Constand) was also telling the truth?” Cosby was asked.
“Exactly,” Cosby replied, say court motions initially filed under seal and made available from archived U.S. federal court records.
In the deposition, Cosby said he had a deal with the Enquirer.
“I would give them an exclusive story, my words,” Cosby said in the Sept. 29, 2005, deposition. In return, “they would not print the story of — print Beth’s story.”
The release of the documents comes after Cosby was shown on an Associated Press video trying to persuade the news co-operative not to use his response when asked this month about allegations of sexual abuse. “I would appreciate if it was scuttled,” Cosby says in a videotaped exchange on Nov. 6.
Cosby said in 2005 he was given a draft of Ferrier’s interview with the Enquirer and told she had passed its lie-detector test. He said he also was given an advance look at his exclusive, titled My Story, which warned that he would defend against anyone trying to “exploit” him. The Enquirer published Cosby’s story but not the story detailing Ferrier’s accusations.
Constand later sued Cosby and the Enquirer, alleging defamation. The claims were consolidated with her sexual assault lawsuit against Cosby and were settled in 2006.
A representative for American Media, Inc., which owns the tabloid, said Wednesday the Enquirer was “unflinching” in its coverage of the allegations against Cosby.
“We continue to remain aggressive in our reporting today and stand by the integrity of our coverage of this story, which we have taken the lead on for more than a decade,” the representative said.
Cosby has refused to discuss al- legations raised in recent weeks by numerous women. He has not been charged criminally, and the allegations have not been proven in court.
Cosby said at his deposition that Constand and her mother asked only for an apology in early phone calls about the issue in January 2005. And he said they received one. “Andrea’s mother said, ‘That’s all I wanted, Bill,’” Cosby testified.
Constand’s lawyers argued in their defamation suit: “Requesting only an apology is not the action of an extortionist or someone who wants to ‘exploit’ a celebrity.”
They said Cosby later called back and offered to pay for Constand’s “education.”
Constand grew up in the Greater Toronto Area and in high school was a star basketball player.She had met Cosby through her job with the women’s basketball team at Temple University in Philadelphia. She said he sexually assaulted her at his nearby home in 2004. She quit the job and moved home that year, and she first filed a report with police in Ontario on Jan. 13, 2005, and filed a U.S. federal civil suit that March. After U.S. prosecutors decided not to file criminal charges, several other women came forward to support Constand’s claims, including Ferrier. Constand now lives and works in the Toronto area.