Bill Cosby’s Lawyer Tries To Keep ‘Embarrassing’ Court Documents Sealed

Billy Cosby’s lawyer is trying to keep certain “embarrassing” court documents from a decade-old sexual assault case from being released to the public, saying that doing so would harm the reputation of the already much-maligned comedian, the Daily Mail is reporting.

In 2005, Cosby settled a lawsuit in which a Temple University employee accused the comedian of drugging her and sexually assaulting her at his home. The details of the settlement are confidential.

Now, the Associated Press is trying to convince a judge to unseal Cosby’s depositions in the case. His lawyer, George M. Gowen III, argued in court last week that the deposition needs to remain sealed, arguing that divulging the contents of his testimony would “embarrass” his client.

“It would be terribly embarrassing for this material to come out. Frankly,… it would embarrass him, (and) it would also prejudice him in eyes of the jury pool in Massachusetts.”

Gowen is referring to a pending civil case against Cosby in Massachusetts. According to Fox News, three women who claimed to have been sexually assaulted by Bill Cosby have filed suit against the comedian; Cosby and his team have vehemently, and publicly, denied those accusations. The three women claim in their lawsuit that Cosby’s denials defamed them. Jury selection is under way in that case, while Cosby and his lawyers try to get the case thrown out before the “discovery” phase of the trial.

In fact, at least a dozen women have leveled sexual assault allegations against Cosby, with many of those allegations surfacing in the last year; Cosby has denied them all. In a 2015 interview made available via the Washington Post, Cosby claimed that the sexual assault allegations that have been dogging him for the past several months have overshadowed his charitable efforts.

“I have been in this business 52 years and I’ve never seen anything like this. And reality is the situation. And I can’t speak.”

Cosby has not faced, and is not known to be facing, any criminal charges related to the sexual assault allegations against him.

Whether or not the “embarrassing” depositions Cosby gave will be unsealed remains to be seen, but U.S. District Judge Eduardo Robreno, in remarks he made Friday, does not appear particularly sympathetic to Cosby.

‘Why would he be embarrassed by his own version of the facts?”

As of this post, it is not clear when the court will rule on whether or not to release the “embarrassing” Bill Cosby court documents.

[Image courtesy of: Getty Images/David A. Smith]