Janice Dickinson can proceed with her defamation suit against Bill Cosby. In the last round of the ongoing legal battle, the California Supreme Court has rejected Cosby’s request to overturn an appeals court decision that favored Dickinson.
“That means our case against him, on behalf of our brave client Janice Dickinson, moves forward,” Dickinson’s attorney Lisa Bloom tweeted today. She said the state’s Supreme Court denied review of the lower court’s Dickinson-favored rulings on three out of three issues. (See her tweet below.)
The California Supreme Court posted the March 14 disposition – “Petitions for review denied” – on its website this morning.
Former model Dickinson sought — and last November was granted — court permission to make use of certain documents (including a Team Cosby press release and letter to press outlets) that she claims support her contention that Cosby defamed her as a liar. Dickinson has alleged that she was raped and drugged by Cosby in 1982, and that Cosby and members of his legal team accused her of lying when she later made the accusation.
Last November, California’s Second Appellate District court ruled that Dickinson could use the documents to prove her case. Dickinson also is seeking to include Cosby’s former lawyer Marty Singer as a defendant, which yesterday’s Supreme Court decision now allows.
At a hearing in October, the Court of Appeals rejected an earlier ruling by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Debre Weintraub that dropped Singer from the case. At that time, Singer’s lawyer Jeremy B. Rosen told Deadline that Singer’s statements about Dickinson “are absolutely protected by the First Amendment as they simply set forth his opinions regarding the allegations plaintiff made about Mr. Singer’s then client.” Rosen vowed to take the issue to the California Supreme Court.
Source: Deadline
