Judges rules against Bill Cosby getting notes from New York magazine reporter

Bill Cosby (Hollyscoop/NDN)

Actor and comedian Bill Cosby is assisted as he leaves after a court appearance in Norristown, Pa., Feb. 3, 2016. A Pennsylvania appeals court on Monday, April 25, 2016, rejected Cosby's attempt to halt his criminal case because of what he called a decade-old deal not to prosecute him. (AP Photo/Mel Evans, File)

Actor and comedian Bill Cosby arrives for a court appearance in Norristown, Pa., Feb. 3, 2016. (AP Photo/Mel Evans, File)

NEW YORK — The comedian Bill Cosby lost his bid on Tuesday to force the publisher of New York magazine to comply with a subpoena seeking reporters’ notes and other material for a cover story last year chronicling 35 women’s sexual assault claims against him.

U.S. District Judge Paul Gardephe in Manhattan ruled against Cosby’s effort to compel New York Media LLC to provide access to unedited interviews of six women interviewed for the story who are pursuing a civil lawsuit against him.

More than 50 women have publicly accused Cosby of sexually assaulting them, often after plying them with alcohol or drugs, in incidents dating back decades.

UNDERAGE SEXUAL ASSAULT LAWSUIT

A sexual battery lawsuit filed by a woman who accuses Cosby of sexually abusing her at the Playboy Mansion when she was underage will proceed, a judge has ruled.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Craig Karlan’s ruling Thursday allows most of Judy Huth’s lawsuit against Cosby to proceed while dismissing a negligent infliction of emotional distress claim. Huth will still be able to argue that Cosby intentionally inflicted emotional distress on her.

Huth sued Cosby in December 2014, saying that he forced her to perform a sex act on him in a bedroom of the Playboy Mansion around 1974 when she was 15 years old.

Cosby’s lawyers had challenged the case on various procedural grounds, including that Huth had waited too long to sue the comedian.

Cosby’s lawyers had also argued that Huth’s claims should be dismissed because her former attorney did not follow the proper procedure for filing a lawsuit alleging underage sexual abuse.

“The court is not, at this time, willing to dismiss plaintiff’s potentially meritorious claims against defendant based upon mistakes attributable to her former counsel,” Karlan wrote.

“The decision is a vindication of our position that this lawsuit should be permitted to proceed to trial and should not be dismissed,” Huth’s attorney Gloria Allred wrote in a statement. “We did not believe that there was a valid basis for denying Ms. Huth her day in court. We are very happy that the Court agreed and we will continue to vigorously fight for a just result for our client.”

An email sent to Cosby’s spokeswoman Monique Pressley was not immediately returned. Cosby’s former attorney has accused Huth’s former lawyer of attempting to extort Cosby for $250,000 before filing her lawsuit.

PENNSYLVANIA CASE CAN PROCEED

On Monday, a Pennsylvania appeals court rejected Cosby’s attempt to throw out his criminal case because of what he called a decade-old deal not to prosecute him.

The mid-level state Superior Court ruled that the criminal sex-assault case against Cosby can proceed, prompting the district attorney to press for a preliminary hearing date.

Cosby, 78, is facing trial over a 2004 encounter at his home with a then-Temple University employee who says she was drugged and molested by the comedian. Cosby says they engaged in consensual sex acts.

Former prosecutor Bruce Castor has said he promised he would never prosecute Cosby and urged him to testify in the woman’s 2005 civil lawsuit. The release of that testimony last year led a new prosecutor to arrest him.

In the lengthy deposition, the long-married Cosby acknowledged a series of affairs and said he had gotten quaaludes to give to women he hoped to seduce.

Cosby has not yet entered a plea in the criminal case, and remains free on $1 million bail posted after his Dec. 30 arrest.

“We … look forward to the court setting a date so we can present our case,” Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele said in a statement.

Cosby’s lawyers were considering whether to respond to Monday’s ruling, a spokesman said. He could potentially appeal again to the state Supreme Court, but it’s unclear if that would delay the case.

“He may do that, but the critical question will be whether the Supreme Court will give him a stay during the review,” said David Rudovsky, a University of Pennsylvania law professor.

Cosby meanwhile is locked in a number of legal battles around the country with women who accuse him of sexual assault or defamation.

He has countersued some of them, including the Pennsylvania accuser. His lawsuit accuses her of breach of contract for talking to police who reopened the case last year, given the confidential settlement of the lawsuit she filed against him after Castor turned down the case.

Castor re-emerged in the case last fall as a key defense witness who said he had made a deal that Cosby would never be charged. Castor last year was running to return to the district attorney’s office. He was defeated by Steele.

Cosby acknowledged in the deposition that he gave the Temple ex-employee, Andrea Constand, the cold and allergy medicine Benadryl before engaging in sex acts with her at his home near Philadelphia. He calls the encounter consensual.

Constand, who had sought career advice from Cosby, left her job with the Temple women’s basketball team that spring. She returned home to Toronto and began training to become a massage therapist.

A year later, she contacted police to report the alleged sexual assault.

Thirteen other women came forward by the time she settled her lawsuit in 2006 to say that Cosby had also molested them. Cosby in the deposition described a long history of womanizing, including extramarital affairs with several of the accusers. However, he said he never assaulted anyone or gave them drugs unknowingly.

Dozens of women have since added their names to the list of accusers. But the statute of limitations had run on virtually all of them, and Constand’s is the only case to result in criminal charges.

As the case proceeds, the key issues are likely to include whether other accusers can testify; whether Cosby is unfairly biased by the 12-year delay; and whether his testimony in the civil case can be used against him.