Spokesman said Cosby dropped the case against seven women ‘to focus on other matters’

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Disgraced actor and comedian Bill Cosby has dropped his countersuit legal action against seven women who accused him of sexually assaulting them, it was announced on Friday.

Court papers filed on Friday afternoon show the four-year defamation case in Massachusetts is now over. Cosby’s insurer, AIG, had settled with the women last month for an undisclosed sum.

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The 81-year-old objected to the settlement at the time, indicating that the insurer had made the move without his “knowledge, permission and/or consent”, and vowed to pursue his counterclaims.

A spokesman, Andrew Wyatt, said Friday that Cosby dropped the case “to focus on other matters”.

Cosby is serving a three- to 10-year sentence in Pennsylvania for drugging and molesting a different woman, Andrea Constand, in 2004.

The women involved in the defamation case include Tamara Green, Barbara Bowman and Therese Serignese.

Lawyer Joe Cammarata says his clients believe they are “truth-tellers”.

He had planned to take Cosby’s deposition if he pursued his countersuit.

The plaintiffs in the Massachusetts defamation case were among at least 50 women who accused Cosby of sexual misconduct over a span of several decades when he was one of the most successful men in American show business. Cosby has denied the allegations and is appealing against his conviction. He and his wife, Camille, have a home in Massachusetts. He is also facing civil actions in California.

Cosby was convicted two years ago, in retrial in a Pennsylvania court, of attacking Constand, a former basketball player, and was given a prison sentence. Last October he was denied a new trial.

The case had ended in a mistrial the year before but then became the first significant conviction since the eruption in October 2017 of the #MeToo movement against sexual assault and harassment, following a string of allegations against the former film producer Harvey Weinstein.

The women suing Cosby in Massachusetts for defamation say he defamed them by branding them liars after they went public with allegations of sexual assault.