Cosby’s former attorney added to defamation lawsuit by ex-model
Ex-model Janice Dickinson, one of dozens of women who have accused Bill Cosby of sexual assault, has added his former attorney as a defendant in her defamation suit against the comedian.
Lawyer Martin Singer was named in an amended complaint that Dickinson’s lawyers filed Monday. Singer, who was fired by Cosby last month, did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Dickinson sued Cosby in May, claiming she has been re-victimized and her reputation has suffered because of denials by Singer that the comedian drugged and raped her in a Lake Tahoe hotel room more than 30 years ago.
The suit detailed Dickinson’s allegations that Cosby raped her after giving her wine and a pill in the hotel room, and how she wanted to go public with her story in a 2002 autobiography but was prevented from doing so by the book’s publisher.
Like the first complaint, Dickinson’s amended suit alleges defamation, false light invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
The suit states that Singer prepared four news releases denying that Cosby drugged and raped Dickinson and that all were released within three days after she made her allegations against Cosby during a Nov. 18, 2014, television interview.
The Singer statements, among other things, called Dickinson’s allegations in the interview “fabricated” and “an outrageous defamatory lie,” the suit states.
Singer “acted with reckless disregard to the falsity of the statements” and ignored the fact there were “obvious reasons to doubt the accuracy of his Statements,” the suit alleges.
Cosby and Singer refused demands from Dickinson’s lawyers to retract the statements, according to the suit.