Bill Cosby accuser Andrea Constand and her attorneys threw more incendiary accusations at the scandal-plagued comedian and his legal team in court papers filed Monday, accusing Cosby of waging a “thinly veiled defamation campaign” and one of his attorneys of displaying “open hostility.”
Constand and her lawyers are also asking for sanctions against Cosby’s counsel.
At issue is the leak of Cosby’s deposition in former Temple University employee Constand’s 2005 sexual assault lawsuit against the comedian, which was settled the following year. In July, the New York Times obtained the full deposition transcript and partially reported on it. In legal papers filed in July, Cosby’s legal team accused Constand of breaching her confidentiality agreement with the comedian and suggesting that Constand and her team might have played a part in the deposition leak, requesting discovery to prove that they did.
Constand and her team scoffed at those accusations in Monday’s filing.
“Neither counsel was aware of, or had participated in the release of any testimony,” the papers read. “In fact, [Constand’s] counsel believed that Defendant had orchestrated its release.”
The papers also note, “A simple phone call to the court reporting service which released the deposition should have been sufficient to allay [Cosby’s] ‘suspicions’ and cause his counsel to forgo filing a meritless claim.”
Instead, Constand’s team contends Cosby and his lawyers are trying to bury her with motions.
“Each motion is more vitriolic than the last, and all these motions do is create a circus atmosphere that brings disrepute upon the profession of law,” the papers say, adding that Constand “requests that the court stop Defendant’s thinly veiled defamation campaign under the guise of ‘legal motions’ and sanction defense counsel.”
The filings reserve particular ire for Cosby attorney Patrick O’Connor, who the papers claim has “exhibited open hostility toward [Constand’s] counsel.”
The papers added, “His conduct was indefensible and now he seeks to ‘sling mud’ in an attempt to divert attention from his own bad conduct.”
In recent months, Cosby has been accused of rape or sexual assault by dozens of women, with a common theme being that he allegedly drugged them beforehand.
Cosby’s attorney, Martin Singer, has denied such accusations in the past.
Pamela Chelin contributed to this report.