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Bill Cosby: Woman Who Alleged Sexual Assault Drops Defamation Case

By Patricia Ramirez
Published on: 16:42 PST, Jun 25, 2016

Bill Cosby got his first bit of good news in quite a while on Friday. A woman who had previously alleged that Cosby had raped her in 1965 (41 years ago) dropped her civil defamation case against the once-beloved comedian. The development took place just a day after a federal judge had ruled that the 72-year-old New Hampshire woman’s case against Cosby could move forward.

The woman in question, Kristina Ruehli, reportedly opted to drop her case against Bill Cosby because “the legal landscape has changed” following the time she filed the suit back in November, 2015. The Bill Cosby plaintiff announced her decision to drop her Bill Cosby lawsuit via the Associated Press, reports NBC Philadelphia.

Currently, Bill Cosby is facing both criminal prosecution in Pennsylvania, as well as civil lawsuits from dozens of other of alleged victims that contend that Bill Cosby sexually assaulted and/or drugged them.

According to the attorney of the alleged victim, she simply wants to return to her life and try to to put the pain of Bill Cosby’s alleged abuse behind her.

“Ms. Ruehli is 72 and her husband just celebrated his 79th birthday. She will watch the pending cases proceed in solidarity with other survivors, those known and unknown, while returning her focus, if she can, on her daily life and trying to put behind her all the pain this ordeal has caused her.”

Not surprisingly, a spokesman for Cosby is hoping that the dropped lawsuit is a herald of things to come. Andrew Wyatt said that Bill Cosby is hoping that other lawsuits against the comedian are dropped in the near future, and that Mr. Cosby is “looking forward” to fighting the rest of the sexual assault allegations that have been levied against him before a jury of his peers.

Bill Cosby’s attorney also mentioned that this is the second defamation case against Bill Cosby to be dropped this year. Back in January, a civil suit brought by Renita Hill was dismissed by a federal judge. In that instance, the presiding judge said that Bill Cosby’s comments (or those made by those closely affiliated with him) are protected by the first amendment.

“For those in the media who accepted every allegation raised without question or evaluation, they need to answer the well-known question with respect to Mr. Cosby, ‘Which office do I go to get my reputation back?'”

It is worth noting that Ruehli’s withdrawal of her allegations against Bill Cosby were completely voluntary, unlike the legal dismissal of Hill’s defamation suit against the comedian. It had nothing to do with the merits of her allegations against Bill Cosby.

Indeed, Ruehli’s case was against Bill Cosby was voluntarily dismissed without prejudice. This means that she can refile it in the future pending the outcome of other, similar, cases against Cosby. Not to mention the outcome of his criminal case. Her decision to voluntarily dismiss the case against Bill Cosby was unexpected, as a judge overseeing the case rejected Bill Cosby’s motion to dismiss the case against him on Thursday.

Kristina Ruehli, in the same vein as other alleged Bill Cosby victims, argued that Bill Cosby had defamed her when he publicly accused her of lying about her rape allegations against him. She came forward with her sexual assault allegations against Bill Cosby in 2014.

According to Ruehli, she was sexually assaulted by Bill Cosby back in 1965 when she worked as a secretary at an LA talent agency. At the time, she was only 22-years-old.

She alleges that Bill Cosby invited her, along with others, to a house party on the night in question. She further alleged that Bill gave her two drinks, and she woke up naked in Bill Cosby’s bed to him trying to force her to perform oral sex on him.

[Photo by Matt Rourke-Pool/Getty Images]

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