Green v. Cosby

138 F.Supp.3d 114 (2015)

Facts

On December 10, 2014, Green filed a complaint alleging that Cosby (D) publicly defamed her by statements made by individuals operating at his direction and/or within the scope of their employment. Two more plaintiffs joined the lawsuit. D, 'an internationally known actor and comedian,' met each P and subsequently sexually assaulted her. As for P, D offered her two pills as cold medicine. P took the pills and became weak and dizzy. D then drove P to her apartment, where D subjected her to sexual contact against her will and despite her repeated demands to stop. In February of 2005, the Philadelphia Daily News published an interview with P in which she publicly disclosed the sexual assault that had occurred in the 1970s. P made the same statements on the TV circuit during appearances on television shows around the same time. Nine years later, on or about February 7, 2014, Newsweek published an interview with P in which she repeated her description of being sexually assaulted by D in the 1970s. D, acting through his agents, issued statements to the media in response to the public disclosures made by Ps. Ps allege that D knew each statement was false at the time it was made. Despite knowing the statements were false, D directed the statements be made. Each of the statements was widely read by many people, including family, friends, and neighbors, and Ps suffered damages, including to their reputations, as a result of the publication of the statements. In February of 2014, d, acting through a publicist, made a statement to Newsweek. The publicist provided the statement to Newsweek while acting as D's authorized agent, employee, or authorized representative and he knew or should have known the statement was false when it was made. 'This is a 10-year-old, discredited accusation that proved to be nothing at the time, and is still nothing.' D moved to dismiss.