In the suit filed Wednesday, Cosby claims that Constand and her attorney, Dolores Troiani, voluntarily cooperated with the Montgomery County District Attorney’s criminal investigation into the decade-old sexual assault allegation.
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Cosby claimed all those he is now suing were subject to confidentiality clauses after he reached a private settlement with Miss Constand in 2005 over the alleged attack.
Constand accused Cosby of drugging and molesting her at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004.
When prosecutors reopened the criminal charges against Cosby in 2015, investigators had to speak to all of the defendants now named in the breach-of-contract lawsuit.
During the pretrial hearing earlier this month, the report notes, “Troiani testified that her client had agreed not to initiate any future criminal proceedings against Cosby in her confidentiality agreement, but was insistent that the deal did not bar Constand from cooperating if authorities came to her first”. Cosby’s lawyers are now appealing a Judge’s recent decision which rejected an alleged binding non prosecution agreement with former D.A. Bruce Castor.
Cosby has kept lawyers busy in several states this past year as he fights the criminal case in Pennsylvania, pursues defamation suits against accusers in MA and California and now files a breach-of-contract suit against Constand, her mother and her lawyers.
It’s unclear who represents Boca Raton, Florida-based publisher American Media Inc.
Cosby sought the hearing to explore whether he had a promise from the prior district attorney that he would never be charged over the encounter with Constand, who was then a basketball team employee at Temple University, his alma mater.
According to Cosby’s testimony in the deposition, he admitted sexual contact with Constand, but said it was consensual.
Constand would be the key witness against Cosby at a criminal trial, along with Troiani, and possibly her mother, Gianna Constand.
Cosby is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on the felony case on March 8.
Bill Cosby is suing a woman he is accused of sexually assaulting, along with her mother.
Cosby has appealed that ruling, a spokesman for the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts Jim Koval told Reuters on Tuesday.
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After the story accusing Constand of extortion was published in 2005, in 2006 Constand sued American Media and Cosby for libel. The 78-year-old entertainer could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted. Troiani also declined to comment.
