Camille Cosby also suggested that her husband, not the women, was the party being harmed.
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No details have emerged about what Camille Cosby said during her deposition. Joseph Cammarata, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, told reporters that she was “reserved” and her testimony lasted just 2.5 hours, with exchanges between the rival teams of lawyers taking up the rest of the time.
But NBC News reports Camille Cosby should have answers, as Cosby’s business manager, to key questions.
Camille and Bill have been married since 1964 and she still manages his business affairs.
Her lawyers have no comment. They declined to speak to the press on the day of the deposition. She is scheduled to continue her deposition March 14. Cosby denied the allegations and filed a countersuit.
Bill Cosby’s wife has finished about eight hours of answering questions under oath in a MA defamation lawsuit filed against him by seven accusers.
After numerous women went public with sex assault allegations against Bill Cosby, Mrs Cosby, 71, issued a supportive statement, calling him “a kind man, a generous man, a amusing man, and a wonderful husband, father and friend”. Lawyers twice consulted with a magistrate judge, he said.
Cosby, who denies any wrongdoing, then countersued, accusing the women of conspiring to ruin his now-cancelled entertainment projects and insisted they made up their stories of abuse.
The separate criminal case against Bill Cosby is set to begin with a preliminary hearing on March 8.
The deposition was conducted under tight security, with black curtains cordoning off the wing of the Springfield Marriott and security posted at all entrances.
But he was not allowed to question her about anything that could fall under the MA law protecting husband-and-wife intimate conversations.
Mrs Cosby was called to give evidence in a hotel in the north-eastern state where the star turned pariah has accused seven women of lying in alleging that he assaulted them – in order to damage his reputation and exact financial reward.
Cammarata, who sued Bill Clinton in the 1990s in the Paula Jones sexual harassment case, believes Camille Cosby in a unique position to know something about the accusations from five-dozen women who say Bill Cosby drugged and/or raped them in episodes dating back to the 1960s, and he’s determined to pry it out of her.
The defamation suit connected to the Monday deposition was brought against Cosby in late 2014 by Tamara Green, who was later joined by seven more co-plaintiffs.
Cosby’s lawyers have said in court papers the deposition is “nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt to pressure (the) defendant in the face of subjecting his wife to the shame and embarrassment of responding to questions about his alleged infidelities and sexual misconduct”.
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Although Camille’s deposition is for a civil case, anything she says could be used in a criminal prosecution.
