Even as Bill Cosby drops a defamation lawsuit against one of his accusers in California, he is trying to delay or halt the criminal proceedings against him in Pennsylvania.

The California suit had been filed last year in Los Angeles by Mr. Cosby in response to accusations by the former supermodel Beverly Johnson that he had drugged her in the 1980s.

Ms. Johnson released a statement this week acknowledging that the lawsuit against her had been withdrawn but suggesting that the issue is larger than her case. In the statement, she said, “this is not my conversation, rather a collective one on the America we create through public discourse when it comes to victims of abuse and the respect we carry for women.”

Ms. Johnson is one of the dozens of women who have come forward since November 2014 to accuse Mr. Cosby of drugging or assaulting them.