Bill Cosby sues accuser Andrea Constand, her mother, and attorneys for breach of contract
Bill Cosby has filed a breach of contract lawsuit against a woman accusing him of sexual assault, her mother, her attorneys, and the National Enquirer.
Cosby has been charged with drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand, 42, at his home in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, in January 2004. Former Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce L. Castor Jr. declined to prosecute Cosby in February 2005, but the case was reopened last summer. The suit alleges that Constand and her mother, Gianna, broke a 2006 confidentiality agreement with Cosby when they "voluntarily sat for interviews with the district attorney, even though they were under no legal obligation to do so and the terms of the confidentiality agreement expressly prohibited such conduct." Cosby is asking Constand to return the money she received in the settlement, People reports.
The suit, filed Feb. 1, alleges that Constand's attorney, Dolores Troiani, violated the agreement when she "voluntarily cooperated with the investigation and turned over her case files from the underlying litigation to the district attorney" and along with former law partner Bebe Kivitz filed a defamation lawsuit against Castor. Regarding the National Enquirer, the suit claims the magazine "has published and continues to publish stories regarding allegations against Mr. Cosby made by Andrea Constand and other individuals despite its clear contractual obligations to not publish any stories relating to certain allegations against Mr. Cosby."
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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