Cosby court confessions made and sealed a decade ago when he was sued by one of his alleged rape victims must now be released, argue lawyers for Associated Press, even if these contain “embarrassing” revelations.
The subject documents were only temporarily sealed, following a settlement with the plaintiff, but now Team Cosby wants them permanently out of the hands of the prying press and other litigants who might benefit from the disclosures.
Comedian Bill Cosby now faces at least three lawsuits from women he is also accused of drugging and raping and who further allege that he’s wronged them through mean and defamatory statements he’s made about their rape allegations.
For the most part, Cosby has successfully dodged answering the scandalous accusations head on, even as dozens of victims have come forward with tales of date rape that stretch as far back into time as half a century.
They paint a troubling portrait of a cunning serial offender who used his public image and star power to deceive young woman he intended to violate -- even in his old age and while he publically represented himself as a moral advisor.
Yet in the debate over historic legal documents which clearly contain not only humiliating admissions about his life and habits but incriminating ones as well, Cosby’s lawyers contend their client is not a public figure, “in the strictest sense.”
The distinction could have a bearing on whether people will finally have a peek at what he confessed to ten years ago when first charged with sexual assault, and whether it’s consistent with what he’s asserting today, when many more females have accused him of the same abusive acts.
If Bill Cosby is a private citizen (like the majority of us) then his right to privacy is a liberty interest that’s more paramount than the public’s “right to know” what’s so "embarrassing" in his 2005 sworn testimony. Therefore the court is legally bound to protect those constitutional guarantees above all else.
However, judging from the justice’s unsympathetic remarks this week, Bill Cosby’s rather dubious-sounding claim may not be holding much sway.
"Every case about sex and drugs involves a certain amount of embarrassment," district judge Eduardo Robreno countered during oral arguments yesterday, adding, "why would he be embarrassed by his own version of the facts?"
