Bill Cosby wants ‘sanctions’ against assault accuser
Ethan MillerBill Cosby has filed legal papers seeking a refund on the money he paid to one of his sexual assault accusers, alleging the woman broke their confidentiality covenant.
Ron Bull/AP
Andrea Constand, seen in a 1987 photo, sued Cosby in 2005, accusing him of sexually assaulting her after giving her drugs.
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First he paid her. Now Bill Cosby wants accuser Andrea Constand to pay.
The fallen funnyman is asking a court for “sanctions” against Constand, saying she violated the terms of her hush money.
“(Constand) and her counsel, with agreement in hand, are intent on reneging on what they promised Defendant — confidentiality and finality — and depriving Defendant of his end of the bargain,” Cosby claims in new court paperwork filed in Philadelphia.
In his motion, the former TV icon claims Constand’s court push for the release of Cosby’s full deposition is an attempt to shed the confidentiality part of their 2006 agreement.
She wants to “have her cake and eat it too,” he claims.
He doesn’t go as far as demanding his money back but ominously suggests Constand is accurate to voiding their pact.
If she wants the right to go public, she might be required to “pour out some or all of the money paid to her by defendant as part of the agreement,” Cosby’s filing claims.
The former pudding pop pitchman claims he’s still abiding by the terms of the covenant and never confessed to drugging or sexually assaulting women in deposition excerpts unsealed by the court earlier this month.
He said just because he gave Quaaludes — which he called “disco biscuits” — to some of the women he slept with, it doesn’t mean the sex was not consensual.
Constand sued Cosby in 2005 claiming the deceitful TV dad sexually assaulted her after plying her with drugs.
Cosby was deposed before the parties reached their confidential agreement in October 2006.
A federal judge unsealed parts of the sworn testimony at the request of the Associated Press after more than two dozen women stepped forward with claims Cosby sexually assaulted them too.
Cosby’s new filing claims Constand’s camp helped leak the full deposition to the New York Times in recent days because it failed to inform its private court reporting service about the confidentiality covenant.
“That conscious neglect has led directly to a colossal breach of that confidentiality,” Cosby’s filing states. “This appalling development violated prior orders of this court, both in spirit and in letter.”
Cosby also claims Constand’s motion asking the court to formally release the full transcript violates their pact.
He points out that Constand isn’t trying to void the covenant, just exchange the terms.
“Tellingly, Plaintiff does not seek to void the entire Agreement Covenant: obviously, she wants to keep what she was paid,” his filing states.
He claimed the use of Quaaludes and extramarital sex that he copped to in his deposition were nothing out of the ordinary.
“Quaaludes were a highly standard recreational drug in the 1970’s, labeled in slang as ‘disco biscuits,’ and known for their capacity to increase sexual arousal,” Cosby’s motion says.
“There are countless tales of celebrities, composition stars and wealthy socialites in the 1970’s willingly using Quaaludes for recreational purposes and during consensual sex,” it claims.
He said the deposition excerpts were misconstrued by the media and didn’t amount to a “confession” of “drugging” women and assaulting them.
“Reading the media accounts, one would conclude that Defendant has admitted to rape. And yet Defendant admitted to nothing more than being one of the many people who introduced Quaaludes into their consensual sex life in the 1970’s,” his filing says.
Cosby has never been exciting with a crime in connection with the sex assault allegations, but the scandal cost him TV gigs and his iconic image.
ndillon@nydailynews.com
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