Judge: Bill Cosby Can Sue Accuser

A federal judge has ruled in Bill Cosby's favor, Vanity Fair reports, saying he can sue a woman accusing him of sexual assault for breach of contract. In the "mixed ruling," US District Judge Eduardo Robreno said the disgraced actor can move forward with a lawsuit against Andrea Constand based on a pair of 2014 tweets and an interview she did with the Toronto Sun, per the Hollywood Reporter. However, People reports, Robreno found that Cosby could not sue Constand based on her having talked to police about an alleged 2004 sexual assault, which led to Cosby's arrest. Cosby has argued that Constand violated a 2006 settlement agreement. With regard to speaking to police, the judge said confidentiality cannot be enforced because it would preclude people from providing information about alleged crimes.

As for the tweets—"I won't go away, there is a lot more I will say" and "It's not that everybody just forgot about it, truth is nobody cared"—Constand contends they did not violate confidentiality provisions because they didn't name Cosby. But, writes Robreno, "a statement can be a reference to an individual or situation even if it does not explicitly say so." He adds, "Whether the tweets were in fact references to Cosby—and, if so, whether Constand breached the CSA by tweeting them—are questions to be answered at a later stage." The judge also gave Cosby the green light to sue Constand's attorneys for releasing a decade-old deposition, in which Cosby admits to giving women drugs to facilitate having sex with them, E! reports. The attorneys, however, say they had no part in the release of the information. Finally, Cosby is permitted to sue the National Enquirer for releasing portions of the depositions. (More Bill Cosby stories.)