Janice Dickinson’s defamation lawsuit against comedian Bill Cosby will be decided by a jury, a judge in Los Angeles ruled on Tuesday.
Superior Court Judge Debre Katz Weintraub ruled that the case can proceed to trial to determine the veracity of Dickinson’s claims that Cosby raped her in 1982 and whether the former supermodel was defamed when Cosby's former lawyer branded her as a liar,
The Associated Press reported.
Dickinson, 61, could recoup punitive damages if she wins the case, which she filed in May after Cosby denied her claims against him. She said he drugged and raped her in Lake Tahoe in 1982 and that a publisher refused to include the story in a 2002 memoir, the AP noted.
"Bill Cosby has fought to keep women out of court with regard to their rape allegations," Dickinson’s attorney Lisa Bloom said, according to the AP. "Janice and I, side by side, have been fighting for this day for a year."
Bloom posted about the decision on Twitter.
Monique Pressley, an attorney for Cosby, said lawyers are considering an appeal and believe the case should be dismissed.
“Today, following a hearing on Mr. Cosby’s motion in Dickinson v. Cosby, the Court granted Mr. Cosby's motion in part and struck half the bases upon which plaintiff filed her lawsuit,” Cosby spokesman Andrew Wyatt said in a statement to
USA Today. “We believe the remainder of the lawsuit should be dismissed as well and will be considering Mr. Cosby’s options on appeal."
The case centers around press statements sent in November 2014 by Cosby attorney Martin Singer,
CNN reported. Singer called Dickinson’s claims a lie and said they contradicted her autobiography and a 2002 interview with the New York Observer.
Dozens of women have accused Cosby, 78, of drugging and sexually assaulting them since the 1960s. The statute of limitations has expired in most of the cases, preventing criminal actions.
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