Bill Cosby files defamation lawsuit against actress Beverly Johnson

According to TMZ, Cosby, 78, is suing the former model for defamation of character after claiming to major media outlets that Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted during an audition.

In a press release, Cosby lawyer Monique Pressley called Johnson’s statements “an opportunistic attempt to resuscitate her own career and benefit herself financially from the wave of media attention surrounding her false allegations against Mr. Cosby….”

Cosby’s legal action claims that he never spent any time alone in his home with Johnson and that he asked for an injunction forcing Johnson to retract her public statements and take a chapter about him out of her memoirs.

Johnson’s book representatives did not immediately respond to BuzzFeed News’ request for comment.

The lawsuit is part of a new legal strategy by Cosby to attack some of the women accusing him of sexual abuse in court.

Last week, Cosby filed a lawsuit in MA, suing seven of the accusers for defamation. “I most certainly did not think of my legacy as the first African-American supermodel to grace the cover of Vogue-and drugged by Bill Cosby”.

A Las Vegas casting agent has joined the growing number of women filing suit in MA claiming they’ve been defamed by Bill Cosby.

In that suit, Cosby claimed that the women made “malicious, opportunistic and false and defamatory accusations of sexual misconduct against him”, as well as “knowingly published false statements and accusations”.

Johnson, 63, wrote a detailed article in Vanity Fair in November 2014 about her encounter with Cosby in the mid-1980s, saying she was invited by the comedian, best known for his role in the 1980s sitcom “The Cosby Show”, to his home where he allegedly drugged her coffee.

Cosby has been accused by dozens of women of drugging and sexually assaulting them, although he has denied any wrongdoing and has not been charged with a crime. “Maybe now more people in show business and all around our country will stand up and tell the people he attacked that we support you and believe you”.