Bill Cosby has settled a federal lawsuit brought by seven women who claimed he defamed their character after they went public with their sexual assault allegations. These women filed the lawsuit in 2014, accusing Cosby of falsely branding them as liars after they said he sexually assaulted them. Joseph Cammarata, an attorney for the women, said that they’re all satisfied with the settlement.
However, a statement posted to Cosby’s Twitter and Instagram pages said that he didn’t settle any cases and that the AIG insurance firm did so without his knowledge or consent.
“He is not paying anything to anyone, and he is still pursuing his counterclaims,” the statement said.
“Cosby vehemently denies the allegations brought against him in these defamation suits and he maintains his innocence,” it added.
Cammarata said that he plans to file court papers asking a judge to dismiss Cosby’s lawsuit.
The plaintiffs in this lawsuit are among the five dozen women who have accused Cosby of drugging and raping them in episodes dating back to the mid-1960s.
Tamara Green, the lead plaintiff, said that Cosby raped her in the early 1970s when she was trying to become a model and singer. She first told her story in 2005 on the “Today” show and in the Philadelphia Inquirer. In the fall of 2014, she told her story again to numerous media outlets. Cosby denied her allegations, defaming her by declaring them “absolutely false.”
Cosby was sentenced to three to 10 years in prison last September after getting convicted of drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand.
Constand testified that Cosby violated her at his Pennsylvania home in 2004 after she asked him for career advice.
Approximately 60 other women have accused Cosby of sexually assaulting them, but Constand is the only one whose allegations led to criminal charges.
Cosby has denied the allegations against him and referred to himself as a political prisoner.
“My political beliefs, my actions of trying to humanize all races, genders and religions landed me in this place surrounded by barb wire fencing, a room made of steel and iron,” Cosby said in his first statement since his imprisonment four months earlier. “So, I now have a temporary residence that resembles the quarters of some of the greatest political prisoners — Martin Luther King, Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Randal Robinson and Dr. Benjamin Chavis.”
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