Cosby launches breach-of-contract suit against sexual assault complainant

Image: Actor and comedian Bill Cosby arrives for the second day of hearings at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pennsylvania February 3, 2016.

Bill Cosby wants Andrea Constand to give back the money he paid her in a confidential settlement a decade ago, saying she violated that agreement by helping Montgomery County prosecutors build the current sexual assault case against him previous year.

Constand had accused Cosby of drugging and molesting her at his home in Philadelphia 2004, Q13 Fox reported.

Last year, following similar allegations by dozens of other women, the Constand case came under renewed scrutiny, fueled by details of Cosby’s 2005 deposition, which were published in The New York Times despite the confidentiality agreements. Also being sued is the parent company of National Enquirer as well as Constand’s mother and two of her attorneys, Dolores Troiani and Bebe Kivitz.

A lawyer for the National Enquirer’s publisher, Boca Raton, Florida-based American Media Inc., did not immediately return a message seeking comment Thursday.

“Mr. Cosby has apparently decided his best legal defense is to sue one of his alleged victims and The National ENQUIRER, a publication that has been unflinching in its coverage of allegations against Mr. Cosby beginning in 2000 when everyone else avoided the story”. He faces 10-years in prison if convicted. Cosby’s admission of giving women drugs for the purposes of sex prompted a press firestorm and helped instigate a reopening of the case.

As part of the renewed investigation Miss Constand and her mother were interviewed and files were obtained from her lawyers.

Cosby, in the deposition, said he had a contract with the Enquirer. She filed a civil suit against him in 2005, which was settled confidentially a year later. However, the new District Attorney, Kevin Steele, countered by arguing that he is not bound by this promise, and a judge allowed the preliminary criminal court filings to proceed earlier this month. Cosby, who played Dr. Cliff Huxtable on “The Cosby Show” from 1984 to 1992 and has been married for decades, has denied the women’s accusations. So far, the judge in that case has declined Cosby’s efforts to get the suit thrown out.

In a motion filed in July in federal court, Cosby’s attorney, Patrick J.