LOS ANGELES, (Reuters) – Bill Cosby has been ordered to give a sworn deposition in a lawsuit brought by a woman accusing the comedian of plying her with alcohol and sexually abusing her at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles when she was 15 years old.
The order, entered by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge on Tuesday and made public yesterday, states that Cosby will submit to questions under oath from the lawyer of his accuser, Judy Huth, on Oct. 9, and that she will answer questions from his attorneys on Oct. 15.
The precise times and places were not revealed, but Huth’s lawyer, Gloria Allred, has previously said she expects to depose Cosby in Massachusetts, where he resides.
Cosby’s lawyers had sought to compel Huth to give her deposition before the comedian, but the judge sided with Huth in requiring Cosby to go first, giving the accuser a tactical advantage when it comes time for her to be questioned.
The way for the depositions, a key part of the discovery process in civil litigation, was cleared when the California Supreme Court last month denied Cosby’s petition to review the case, dealing a final blow to his efforts to fend off Huth’s lawsuit.
“We are pleased that we will now be able to move ahead without further delay on Ms. Huth’s case,” Allred said in a statement. There was no immediate comment from Cosby’s legal team.
Huth is one of more than 40 women who have come forward in the past year to say that they were raped or molested by Cosby after he gave them alcohol or drugs in incidents dating back decades.
In 2006 Cosby reached a confidential settlement for an undisclosed sum with a former Temple University employee, Andrea Constand, who accused him of sexual assault. Parts of the deposition he gave in that case were made public last month. The complaint filed by Huth against Cosby is one of at least four pending civil lawsuits stemming from such accusations, though Allred has said hers is the only one seeking damages for the alleged misconduct itself.
The others are defamation suits whose principal causes of action allege the entertainer falsely branded his accusers as liars by denying that he sexually assaulted them.
Cosby, who also faces a criminal investigation by Los Angeles police, has never been charged. He and his lawyers acknowledge marital infidelity on his part but have consistently denied allegations of criminal wrongdoing.
