Cosby temporarily drops civil suit against supermodel Beverly Johnson
With felony sexual assault charges pending against him, Bill Cosby has dropped, temporarily, one of his civil defamation lawsuits against one of his accusers, supermodel Beverly Johnson.
Cosby's lawyers in California moved Thursday to dismiss his civil suit against Johnson, who accused him in her memoir of drugging her and trying to rape her without success at his home in the 1980s.
"The case has been voluntarily dismissed at this time due to the (pending) criminal proceedings in Montgomery County, PA, which impede Mr. Cosby's ability to fully participate in litigating the civil case against Ms. Johnson," according to a statement issued by Cosby spokesman Andrew Wyatt. "We fully expect to re-file the complaint against her prior to the expiration of the statute of limitations."
Cosby is scheduled to be in court on March 8 outside Philadelphia for another pre-trial hearing on charges of aggravated sexual assault of Andrea Constand, an ex-Temple University employee, during an encounter at his nearby home in 2004.
The case was never prosecuted at the time but a new district attorney re-opened it and filed the charges on Dec. 30, citing as evidence a recently-released deposition Cosby gave in 2005 to settle Constand's civil suit against him.
Johnson is one of the most famous of the five dozen women (including Constand) who have accused Cosby of drugging and/or raping them in episodes dating back to the mid-1960s.
Beverly Johnson: Bill Cosby drugged me
In her book, The Face That Changed It All: A Memoir, she recalls becoming woozy after sipping a cappuccino Cosby prepared for her in his home. Suspecting she'd been drugged, Johnson says she let loose with a string of profanities. and a rattled Cosby dragged her down the stairs and shoved her into a taxi, which took her to her apartment.
She also was among 27 accusers interviewed by NBC News in October.
More than two dozen Cosby accusers to get prime-time attention
In December, Cosby filed a defamation suit against her, his second countersuit against some of his accusers. According to a statement at the time from a Cosby lawyer, Monique Pressley, Cosby "never drugged (Johnson) and her story is a lie."
Cosby sues another accuser, Beverly Johnson
Cosby also accused Johnson of trying to "resuscitate her own career and benefit herself financially from the wave of media attention surrounding her false allegations." He sought to force Johnson to retract her claims.
Johnson issued a statement Friday through her publicist Ann-Marie Nieves.
"It has come to my attention that Mr. Cosby has dropped his suit against me. However, this is not my conversation, rather a collective one on the America we create through public discourse when it comes to victims of abuse and the respect we carry for women."
Last year, in a statement to USA TODAY, Johnson called Cosby's lawsuit an intimidation tactic.
"In cases of rape and abuse, abusers will do whatever they can to intimidate and weaken their victims to force them to stop fighting. I ask for your support of all of the victims involved."
