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 The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia ruled
that Cosby's appeal was moot after the contents, including
"damaging" admissions he had made in a 2005 deposition regarding
his sexual behavior, received wide publicity.
"Resealing the documents would not provide Cosby with any
meaningful relief, and thus this appeal is moot," the court
said. "The contents of the documents are a matter of public
knowledge, and we cannot pretend that we could change that fact
by ordering them resealed."
Cosby, 78, once one of the most beloved U.S. entertainers thanks
to his family-friendly persona, has been accused by more than 50
women of sexually assaulted them, often after plying them with
drugs and alcohol, in attacks dating back decades. He has denied
having non-consensual sex with any of them.
The documents include comments Cosby made in a deposition about
his sexual behavior in connection with a complaint filed in U.S.
District Court by Andrea Constand.
Constand, a former basketball coach at Cosby's alma mater Temple
University, accused the comic of offering her an unidentified
pill that left her unable to speak or move, and then assaulting
her on a couch at his Pennsylvania home in 2004.
Cosby has admitted giving Constand the allergy medication
Benadryl but maintained they engaged in consensual acts.
[to top of second column] |
 The documents include admissions by Cosby that he had
extramarital affairs, and that he had acquired the sedative
known as Quaaludes and engaged in sexual relations with a woman
after she took the drug, according to the appeal court's ruling.
They were unsealed by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern
District of Pennsylvania in July 2015, and Cosby's lawyers later
sought to have them resealed.
But the appeals court said the issue was moot because news
organizations had published articles about the documents within
hours of them being released, "and the news media have repeated
his damaging admissions countless times since then."
Most of the allegations against Cosby are too old to be the
subject of criminal prosecution, but the comedian faces a series
of defamation lawsuits by women who claim he smeared their names
when he accused them of lying.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel and Daniel Wallis in New York;
Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Bernadette Baum)
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