Former supermodel Janice Dickinson celebrated a judge’s ruling Tuesday that will allow her defamation case against legendary entertainer Bill Cosby to move forward.
Cosby had filed a motion to have the case dismissed, but Judge Debre Weintraub denied his request. His attorneys can appeal the decision.
“I want Bill Cosby in court,” Dickinson told reporters in Los Angeles before leaving for a medical appointment. “I want him to stand under oath.”
Attorney Lisa Bloom said no trial date has been set, but “we are ready to go.”
Dickinson, 61, filed suit in May accusing Cosby of defamation, portraying her in a false light and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Dickinson has said she has suffered emotionally and lost business deals, engagements and celebrity show participation.
The case is centered on two documents sent to media outlets after Dickinson began to talk publicly about an alleged sexual assault more than 30 years prior.
In November 2014, Dickinson said in an interview that Bill Cosby sexually assaulted her in 1982 after the two had dinner in Lake Tahoe, Nevada.
Cosby attorney Martin Singer immediately called Dickinson’s story “a lie” and said it contradicted her own autobiography and a 2002 interview she did with the New York Observer.
Press statements were issued on November 18 and 19 in 2014, Dickinson’s lawsuit says.
Weintraub did rule partially in Cosby’s favor; one statement will be stricken.
“We believe the remainder of the lawsuit should be dismissed as well and will be considering Mr. Cosby’s options on appeal,” Cosby’s attorneys said in a written statement.
More than 40 women have come forward to publicly accuse Cosby, 78, of assaulting them over four decades. Cosby has denied he sexually assaulted any women. The statute of limitations prevents criminal actions in most of the cases.
He was charged December 30 in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, with aggravated indecent assault against former Temple basketball employee Andrea Constand. He was released on $1 million bail. He has not entered a plea.