Bill Cosby has dropped a defamation lawsuit against supermodel Beverly Johnson, who accused the comedian of drugging her in the 1980s.
Court records show Cosby’s lawyers dropped the suit on February 19.
His attorney Monique Pressley wrote in an email Thursday that Cosby made the move to focus on his defense in a criminal case in Pennsylvania.
Cosby is charged there with drugging and sexually assaulting a former Temple University employee at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004. He has denied the allegations.
Pressley wrote that Cosby plans to re-file the case against Johnson before the statute of limitations expires.
The supermodel has repeatedly accused Cosby of slipping a drug into her cappuccino in his New York home before he let her go after she angrily rebuffed his advances.
Johnson, 63, wrote a detailed article in Vanity Fair in November 2014 about her encounter with Cosby in the mid-1980s, saying she was invited by the comedian, best known for his role in the 1980s sitcom ‘The Cosby Show,’ to his home where he allegedly drugged her coffee.
She later gave interviews to news programs including ABC’s ‘Good Morning America’ and ‘Nightline’ reiterating her claims.
The lawsuit charged that Johnson, a leading model in the 1970s and ’80s and one of his most high-profile accusers, defamed him and intentionally inflicted emotional distress.
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