Sexual
abuse lawsuit against Cosby takes backseat to criminal
case
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[September 21, 2016]
By Dana Feldman
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The
lawyer for a woman accusing Bill Cosby of sexual abuse
in a California civil suit said on Tuesday she has
canceled plans to take a sworn deposition from another
woman listed as a potential witness against the comedian
in a Pennsylvania criminal case.
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Attorney Gloria Allred said the criminal sexual assault case
Cosby faces in suburban Philadelphia takes precedence over the
lawsuit her client, Judy Huth, has brought against the
78-year-old entertainer in Los Angeles and could be undermined
by the deposition in question.
Former donut shop employee Margie Shapiro, one of dozens of
women who have come forward publicly in recent years to accuse
Cosby of sexual wrongdoing, had been subpoenaed by Allred to
give a deposition this coming Friday in Huth's civil case.
But Allred said she decided to withdraw the subpoena after
prosecutors included Shapiro in a list of 13 women they have
asked the Pennsylvania judge for permission to call as witnesses
in Cosby's criminal trial next June.
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Allred also asked the judge in Huth's civil suit to freeze any
further discovery in the case, including a separate deposition
of Shapiro sought by Cosby's lawyers, until the criminal case is
resolved. Cosby attorney Angela Agrusa opposed that move, and
the judge set a hearing for Nov. 4 on the issue.
Allowing Shapiro to be deposed in the civil case would give
Cosby's criminal defense team a glimpse of what Shapiro might
say under oath at his criminal trial and a chance to find
inconsistencies they could later exploit under
cross-examination.
"We think that they are attempting to use civil discovery to get
around the limits on criminal discovery in the criminal case,"
Allred told reporters after Tuesday's status conference on the
lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
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Agrusa suggested Allred had something to hide and accused her of
trying to "have it both ways."
"Ms. Allred can't go around saying these women's stories are
critical to her client's case and then just because they might be
called in a criminal case now claim we can't depose them," Agrusa
told Reuters. "To take the position that ... their allegations can't
be challenged denies Mr. Cosby his fundamental right to ask
questions of his accuser."
Cosby, who built a long career on family friendly comedy, including
his long-running NBC sitcom "The Cosby Show," has steadfastly denied
ever assaulting anyone and insisted that all his sexual encounters
were consensual.
He is charged in Pennsylvania with drugging and sexually assaulting
a former Temple University employee, Andrea Constand, at his home in
2004.
Huth, now in her 50s, alleges in her lawsuit that Cosby plied her
with alcohol and molested her in 1974 at the Playboy Mansion when
she was aged 15.
(Writing and additional reporting by Steve Gorman; Editing by Sandra
Maler)
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