Bill Cosby Wants Court to Re-Seal ‘Affairs’ and ‘Quaaludes’ Admission
Bill Cosby has requested to have a court reseal his past incriminating deposition testimony that was publicly released last year.
The comedian and his legal team want the information in the deposition -- in which Cosby admits, in part, to gaining access to quaaludes to give to women -- barred from being used against him in regards to his ongoing sexual assault and defamation cases, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Cosby brought the appeal to Philadelphia's 3rd U.S. Circuit Court today (April 13), in an attempt to overturn last year’s ruling that allowed the documents to be made public based on a request from The Associated Press.
"A reversal by this court would allow defendant to argue to the various courts in which he finds himself a party — or may in the future find himself a party — that, because the unsealing order was erroneous, the unsealed documents, and information learned from the unsealed documents, should not be introduced in court as evidence against defendant," wrote Cosby’s lawyer Patrick J. O’Connor.
In the deposition, Cosby reveals he had affairs with several women, and he also admits to having been in possession of prescription sedatives that he planned on giving to women in the ‘70s. This admission ultimately led prosecutors to charging Cosby with sexual assault in 2015, based on a 2005 police complaint filed by Andrea Constand.
The AP has since argued that the media’s coverage of Cosby’s case and the unsealed deposition have rendered the attempted reversal pointless, as the documents have already been obtained and released by a court.
Cosby’s legal team eventually cracked down on the deposition -- excerpts of which can still be found on Deadspin -- arguing, "Indeed, due to the highly embarrassing and private nature of the information at issue, confidentiality was the most important term of the settlement to defendant."
The AP, however, maintains that resealing the deposition would be “an affront to the public interest in transparency."