Cosby accuser asks judge to void confidentiality deal

Andrea Constand, the former Temple University employee who lodged sexual-assault allegations against Bill Cosby in a 2005 lawsuit, now says she wants to publicly tell her story.

In court filings Wednesday, Constand asked a federal judge in Philadelphia to void a confidentiality agreement in her settlement deal with the actor-comedian, saying he and his representatives had repeatedly violated its terms and had left her little recourse but to respond.

She also asked for the release of a full transcript of a deposition Cosby gave in the case.

Excerpts of that deposition - unsealed this week - have reignited more recent controversy tied to allegations from more than two dozen other women who have also accused Cosby, 77, of sexual misconduct.

In the excerpts, Cosby testified that he had obtained prescriptions for Quaaludes in the 1970s to use in sexual encounters with women, and had offered college scholarships to two accusers who threatened to go public with allegations that he had sexually assaulted them.

Cosby's lawyer, Patrick O'Connor, has argued in recent court filings that those portions of the transcript do not provide a full picture of Cosby's testimony.

"The public can make a determination as to whether or not the statements and questions were taken out of context" should the full transcript be released, Constand's lawyers said in their filing Wednesday.

They continued: "These documents will assist women who have been victimized and bring awareness to the fact that the sexual assault is not just committed with a gun or a knife, but is also committed by mentors who engage in exploitative behaviors."

Constand alleged that Cosby drugged and groped her when she went to his Cheltenham mansion in 2004, seeking career advice. Cosby maintained that he only gave her Benadryl and that their sexual encounter was consensual.

He has denied assaulting Constand or any other woman, and has never faced criminal sexual assault charges.

Before settling her suit in 2006, Constand had lined up as potential witnesses 13 women willing to testify that Cosby had drugged and assaulted them.

The confidentiality agreement in Constand's case bars her and Cosby from discussing the women's allegations publicly. And yet, Constand's lawyers said, the comedian and his representatives have repeatedly spread "numerous and inaccurate statements and innuendos" about the women's allegations in recent months. (Two of those women are among the three currently suing Cosby for defamation in Maryland.)

In a widely publicized statement in November, Cosby referred to the stories of some of those women as "decade-old, discredited allegations."

A month later, O'Connor was quoted in the New York Times as saying: "If this conduct is true, Bill Cosby has major issues. . . . But maybe, if he's innocent and the relations were consensual - wow."

O'Connor noted at the time that the terms of the Constand settlement prevented him from offering an opinion on his client's guilt or innocence. He reiterated that stance in an e-mail to The Inquirer on Tuesday.

Then, this week, ABC News published a statement credited to "Cosby's camp" that said: "The only reason Mr. Cosby settled [with Constand] was because it would have been embarrassing in those days to put all those women on the stand and his family had no clue. That would have been very hurtful."

Cosby's publicist, David Brokaw, said Tuesday that the statement had not been "authorized by a Cosby representative."

A judge has not set a date to hear Constand's request.