Actress asks to revive Cosby case

A former teen actress who accuses Bill Cosby of molesting her asked a U.S. federal appeals court Friday in Philadelphia to revive her defamation lawsuit against the comedian. Renita Hill, of Pittsburgh, said she was defamed when Cosby, his wife and his then-lawyer questioned abuse accusations raised in late 2014 by Hill and other women. Cosby lawyer Martin Singer called the new accounts “fantastical,” “ridiculous,” “illogical” and beyond “absurd.” A federal court in Massachusetts has allowed seven women to sue Cosby for defamation over the statement, but a Pittsburgh judge dismissed Hill’s lawsuit. Los Angeles lawyer Angela C. Agrusa, defending Cosby, said Singer’s statement was “pure opinion” that, if anything, attacked the press for printing the accusations. Hill accuses Cosby of drugging and molesting her, starting when she was 16, after they met on the TV show Picture Pages in 1983. More than 50 women have made similar allegations.