Former supermodel Janice Dickinson, who accused Bill Cosby of drugging and raping her in the 1980s, will get her day in court with the stand-up comedian.
Dickinson, whose case had originally been dismissed, filed a lawsuit in May 2015 against Cosby and his lawyer, Marty Singer, for defamation after Cosby called her a liar and Singer issued a press release reiterating the claims. On Tuesday, however, a judge in an appellate court issued an order saying that the case has enough merit to continue, The Blast reports. The court ruled that Dickinson has a case regarding a demand letter Singer had sent to various media outlets, but it upheld the lower court’s ruling to dismiss the claim regarding the press release.
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“At least for purposes of the present appeal, Cosby has waived any argument that Singer was not acting as his agent when he made the statements at issue in this case,” the appellate court said of the demand letter. “When someone is publicly accused of rape, is asked for a response, and sends back a letter from counsel saying, ‘the alleged rape never happened,’ it is reasonable for the recipient of the letter to infer that the accused is, in fact, denying the rape.”
Cosby is currently set to stand retrial next April for molesting a Temple University employee in 2004. Over the past several years, more than 60 women have come forward to accuse the 80-year-old of rape, drug facilitated sexual assault, sexual battery, child sexual abuse, and sexual misconduct.
