Court Documents Reveal Cosby Cut Deal W/ National Enquirer To Stop Publishing of Rape Story

Another brick in the wall of denial surrounding Bill Cosby and his alleged rape victims has fallen. The Christian Science Monitor is reporting that Bill Cosby testified under oath in 2005 that he gave the National Enquirer an exclusive interview about looming sexual-assault accusations by a Canadian woman against him in exchange for the tabloid spiking a second accuser's story.

Excerpts released Wednesday of Cosby's deposition from a civil lawsuit filed by Andrea Constand quote Cosby as saying he feared the public would believe her sexual-assault accusations if the Enquirer published similar claims by Beth Ferrier. Both women accused Cosby of drugging and molesting them.

"Did you ever think that if Beth Ferrier's story was printed in the National Enquirer, that that would make the public believe that maybe Andrea was also telling the truth?" Cosby was asked.

"Exactly," Cosby replied, according to court motions initially filed under seal and made available from archived federal court records.

Cosby, in the deposition, said he had a contract with the Enquirer.

"I would give them an exclusive story, my words," Cosby said in the Sept. 29, 2005, deposition. In return, "they would not print the story of — print Beth's story."

Beth Ferrier

Apparently the Enquirer gave Cosby a draft copy of their interview with Ms Ferrier's with the Enquirer told him that she had passed a lie detector test.

Constand later sued Cosby and the Enquirer, alleging defamation. The claims were consolidated with her sexual-assault lawsuit against Cosby and were settled.

A representative for American Media, Inc., which owns the National Enquirer, said in an emailed statement Wednesday that the Enquirer was "unflinching" in its coverage of the allegations against Cosby.

"We continue to remain aggressive in our reporting today and stand by the integrity of our coverage of this story which we have taken the lead on for more than a decade," the representative said.

Cosby had said at his deposition that Constand and her mother asked only for an apology in early phone calls about the issue in January 2005, and he said they received one.  "Andrea's mother said, 'That's all I wanted, Bill,'" Cosby testified.

Constand's lawyers argued in their defamation suit: "Requesting only an apology is not the action of an extortionist or someone who wants to 'exploit' a celebrity."

They said that Cosby later called back and offered to pay for Constand's "education."

Constand had met Cosby through her job with the women's basketball team at Temple University in Philadelphia, and she said he sexually assaulted her at his nearby home in 2004. She quit the job and moved home that year, and she first filed a report with Ontario police on Jan. 13, 2005, and filed a federal civil suit that March. After prosecutors near Philadelphia decided not to file criminal charges, several other women came forward to support Constand's claims, including Ferrier.

Constand's  filed a civil lawsuit which eventually grew to include eight more women willing to testify about allegations of sexual assaults involving Cosby, the count is now up to 19 women claiming being assaulted by the comedian.