COSBY BRANDS BEVERLY A 'LIAR
Slams model in defamation suit
LOS ANGELES — Bill Cosby sued supermodel Beverly Johnson for defamation Monday, calling her a liar over her claims that he drugged and attempted to sexually assault her in the 1980s.
Cosby’s lawsuit contends Johnson has been using the story to try to rekindle her career.
Her “false allegations against Mr. Cosby have been the centerpiece of her attempted resurgence and she has played them to the hilt, repeatedly and maliciously publishing the false accusations in articles, interviews, and television appearances,” the suit says.
It seeks unspecified damages and an injunction to prevent her from repeating her claim that the comedian drugged her with a cappuccino in his New York home.
Johnson, 63, first described the incident in a piece for Vanity Fair and has recounted it in interviews and a memoir released in August.
A call to Johnson’s publicist was not immediately returned.
Cosby’s suit says that a dinner described by Johnson was attended by his wife and that he never spent time alone with the supermodel.
His response follows counterclaims he filed last week in Massachusetts against seven women who are suing him there for defamation. They claim Cosby defamed them by allowing his representatives to brand them as liars.
In the countersuit, Cosby says the women made false accusations of sexual misconduct against him that are “nothing more than an opportunistic attempt to extract financial gain.”
Since late 2014, more than 50 women have accused Cosby, 78, of sexual abuse. He is a defendant in five civil cases in LA, Massachusetts and Pittsburgh but has not been criminally charged.
Cosby’s attorneys on Friday asked a federal judge to dismiss a suit by Renita Hill, who lives near Pittsburgh and has accused him of drugging and having sex with her several times after they met on the children’s TV show “Picture Pages” in 1983.
She claims Cosby, his wife and lawyer have painted her as a “liar” and “extortionist” with their denials that he sexually abused women.
Cosby’s attorneys noted those denials didn’t identify Hill. And even if they did, they are protected speech as opinion, they contend.
Hill’s attorney said his client would file her response in court.
“Renita’s claims are viable both from a factual and legal standpoint,” the lawyer, George Kontos, said Monday.