Bill Cosby's motion in Mass. defamation case partially granted
SPRINGFIELD, Mass.-- Bill Cosby's effort to put aMassachusetts defamation lawsuit against him on hold until his Pennsylvania criminal case is resolved has been partially granted.
A U.S. District Court judge says discovery addressed to Cosby in the Massachusetts case is stayed but the case isn't stayed in any other respect. He says Cosby's motion is allowed in part and denied in part.
The judge says in a ruling issued Monday he's blocking discovery addressed to Cosby to avoid the "precarious dilemma" of Cosby having to choose whether to assert his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination and put himself at a disadvantage in the Massachusetts case or waive that privilege and possibly incriminate himself in the Pennsylvania case.
Both cases involve women who've accused Cosby of sexual misconduct. Cosby denies their allegations.
The Cosbys have a home in Shelburne Falls, about an hour's drive from Springfield, where the lawsuit was filed.
The plaintiffs in the defamation case are among about 50 who have accused Bill Cosby of sexual misconduct.
In December, Bill Cosby, who played Dr. Cliff Huxtable on "The Cosby Show" from 1984 to 1992, was charged in Pennsylvania with drugging and sexually assaulting a former Temple University employee at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004. He has pleaded not guilty.