The case was filed by seven of the roughly fifty women who have come forward with sexual assault and misconduct accusations against Cosby.
Advertisement
Over the weekend, Bill Cosby’s attorneys filed a motion to stop the deposition, and the plaintiffs’ lawyers filed arguments against that motion.
According to a report by Billboard, the deposition is believed to be Camille’s first in the ongoing case against her husband, and was “given under heavy security” at the Marriott hotel in Springfield, MA.
Yet in the over seven hours the deposition was held, just two-and-a-half hours were actual testimony. Mrs Cosby continues the deposition on March 14.
“None of us will ever want to be in the position of attacking a victim”, she said.
The Cosbys fought hard to prevent the grilling, but a judge ruled late Sunday that Camille, who staunchly defended her husband of 52 years as his sex scandal mushroomed, could be questioned under oath.
NEW YORK – JUNE 08: Bill Cosby and his wife Camille Cosby speak onstage at the Apollo Theater 75th Anniversary Gala at The Apollo Theater on June 8, 2009 in New York City.
Despite multiple attempts to avoid it, Mrs. Cosby spent some seven hours in the Springfield hotel being deposed by attorneys for the seven women claiming defamation and emotional distress at the hands of Bill Cosby.
The Massachusetts case was initially taken out in December 2014 by Tamara Green, a model and nightclub signer, who claimed that Cosby – once renowned for family-friendly comedy – drugged and sexually abused her. Six other women later joined the case, saying they had been sexually abused by Cosby, who had then defamed them by accusing them of lying.
While Cammarata declined to describe what he elicited from Camille, he described the day “as fruitful in a sense and frustrating in a sense”.
Her lawyers said that she “has had no involvement with the facts or allegations underlying this case”, and that forcing her to testify would serve “no goal other than to harass and embarrass her”, according to the Associated Press. They tried to block the deposition.
A U.S. District Court judge in MA on Monday rejected that plea and said the deposition should proceed.
After numerous women went public with sexual-assault allegations against Bill Cosby, Camille Cosby issued a supportive statement, calling him “a kind man, a generous man, a amusing man, and a wonderful husband, father and friend”. “But the question should be asked – who is the victim?”
This defamation suit doesn’t invoke the woman who has filed criminal charges against Cosby.
Advertisement
In December, Bill Cosby, who played Dr. Cliff Huxtable on “The Cosby Show” from 1984 to 1992, was charged in Pennsylvania with drugging and sexually assaulting a former Temple University employee at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004. This month, a judge denied a motion by his lawyers to dismiss the charges.
