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LOS ANGELES (CNS) - Bill Cosby's attorneys are seeking dismissal of a woman's lawsuit that accuses the comedian of sexual assault, arguing in their new court papers -- as they have in the case of another accuser -- that the claims violate the statute of limitations.
Plaintiff Linda Ridgway-Whitedeer, 77, filed the Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit Sept. 12 under a 2022 California law eliminating the statute of limitations for most sexual assault cases. She also is suing the William Morris Agency, now known as William Morris Endeavor Entertainment LLC. The company represented the entertainer at the time and she alleges management knew or should have known of his history of assaulting women.
On Friday, Cosby's lawyers filed court papers with Judge Richard Fruin stating that the plaintiff waited too long to file her lawsuit. A hearing is scheduled for Feb. 9.
"Taking plaintiff's claims as true, she is barred by the statute of limitations where the alleged assault took place in 1971 and she has failed to allege any facts that fall within any of the revival statutes passed by the California legislature," Cosby's lawyers maintain in their court papers.
The California constitution forbids the use of the Sexual Abuse and Cover Up Accountability Act where it singles out a single class, namely victims of sexual assault, and provides them with special privileges, according to Cosby's attorneys' court papers, which further state that the act violates Cosby's rights under both the state and federal constitutions by taking away a statute of limitations defense previously available to him.
In addition, Ridgway-Whitedeer does not claim to have been a minor at the time of the assault and so the viability of her claims hinges on the limitations rules set out in a part of the state Code of Civil Procedure, Cosby's attorneys argue.
The CCP section at issue states that a civil action to recover such damages must be filed within 10 years from the date of the last act or within three years of the plaintiff discovering her damages, whichever is later, according to Cosby's lawyers court papers.
"The alleged assault in this case took place more than 50 years ago," Cosby's lawyers maintain. "Furthermore, plaintiff makes no claim that she only recently discovered within the past three years the injury that resulted from the 1969 assault."
Cosby's lawyers have made similar arguments in urging dismissal of a lawsuit by another accuser, Victoria Valentino.
According to Ridgway-Whitedeer's lawsuit, while Cosby was preparing for his film "Hickey & Boggs" in 1971, he reached out to his representatives and requested that then-actress Ridgway-Whitedeer, another agency client, come to the movie location and audition for a role in the film.
Ridgway-Whitedeer alleges that when she arrived at the audition, she expected to see others involved in the casting process. Instead, she says, Cosby ushered her into an office. From there, he allegedly ordered her to sit in a chair abutting the door, ensuring that no one could enter the room. The suit alleges that he grabbed her hair and forced his private parts into her mouth.
Dozens of women have accused Cosby of drugging and raping them over the years, and Cosby has repeatedly denied the allegations.
Cosby, 86, was found guilty of three counts of aggravated indecent assault in 2018 in Pennsylvania, and sentenced to three to 10 years in prison. His conviction was overturned in 2021 by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court based on a prior prosecution agreement not to charge the defendant.
In June 2022, Cosby was found civilly liable in Santa Monica for the sexual assault of a Riverside County woman who said the comedian sexually abused her when she was a teenager at the Playboy Mansion in the 1970s.