Media + Entertainment

Partner Michael Niborski, a member of Pryor Cashman’s Media and Entertainment, Intellectual Property and Litigation Groups, spoke with The Guardian for its story, “LAPD ‘opens investigation’ into allegations of sexual abuse by Bill Cosby.” The LAPD stated that it would explore sexual assault accusations against Cosby, even if the statute of limitations has run out. Documents from a 2005 trial were recently released by the Associated Press in which Cosby admitted giving a woman the sedative quaalude before having sex with her.

In California, supermodel Janice Dickinson is suing Cosby for defamation; in Massachusetts, three more of his alleged victims also suing on the same grounds. Cosby’s accusers are focusing on defamation because the statutes of limitations for criminal charges have all run out. While crimes such as murder, arson or kidnapping can be prosecuted at any point, victims of sexual abuse have a limited time to file criminal charges, which range from between three and 30 years, depending on state law.

Both the California suit and the Massachusetts lawsuits are waiting for a judge to rule on motions by Cosby’s lawyers to dismiss them. According to Niborski, if in either case the judge rules that the complaint has merit and they progress to a jury trial, then that’s a whole new ball game because that’s when the plaintiffs can turn a defamation trial into a proxy rape trial.

Niborski warned that due to several technicalities, the legal bars for either Dickinson in California or the plaintiffs in Massachusetts to get their days in court are still higher than they seem. “If I had to bet my own money, I would bet that the judge would side with Cosby’s lawyers,” Niborski said.  This is not because of a lack of evidence against Cosby – the evidence now includes his own admission under oath – but because the standards for a defamation suit are very different from those in a criminal case.

To read the full article from the July 22, 2015 issue of The Guardian, please click here.