And the lawsuits just keep coming for Bill Cosby.
The scandal-embroiled comedian has been slapped with another defamation lawsuit, this time filed by Kristina Ruehli, who claims that Cosby tried to rape her in 1965, when she was 22.
Ruehli claims that Cosby came into the agency where she was working as a secretary in 1965 and invited her to a party at his home. But she arrived at the party to find a “nearly empty” house. According to Ruehli, Cosby gave her a couple of drinks, after which she passed out. When she came to, she found herself naked in bed with Cosby, who “had his penis in her face, his hand on the back of her head. He was attempting to place his penis in her mouth and force her to give him oral sex.”
However, Ruehli — one of the “Jane Does” listed in former Temple University employee Andrea Constand’s 2005 lawsuit against Cosby — is suing for what she said happened after she came forward with her accusations late last year. According to Ruehli, Cosby’s then-attorney, Marty Singer, issued a statement reading, in part, “Over and over again, we have refuted these new unsubstantiated stories with documentary evidence, only to have a new uncorroborated story crop up out of the woodwork. When will it end?”
“In the false and defamatory November 21 Statement, Mr. Cosby’s agent, Mr. Singer, stated explicitly, stated in effect, stated by innuendo and/or implied that Ms. Ruehli was a liar, that her story had not been and could not be corroborated as verified because it was untrue, and that she and her story were fantastical, ridiculous and absurd,” the lawsuit, filed Monday in federal court in Massachusetts, reads.
Cosby, who has been accused of rape or sexual assault by dozens of women, faces similar defamation suits from model Janice Dickinson and other accusers. Earlier this month, a judge ruled that Cosby and Singer can undergo a deposition in the Dickinson suit.
Ruehli is seeking unspecified damages.
Pamela Chelin contributed to this report.