NEWSMAKERS

NEWSMAKERS

Cosby appeals ruling that unsealed deposition excerpts

PHILADELPHIA

Bill Cosby’s lawyers Monday appealed a judge’s decision to unseal court filings that quote him saying he obtained Quaaludes to give women before sexual encounters.

The newly public court filings contain excerpts of Cosby’s deposition in a 2005 lawsuit in Pennsylvania that accused him of sexual battery, and were unsealed July 6 on a bid by The Associated Press.

The full deposition has since been released by a court-reporting service and contains Cosby’s only testimony under oath about accusations he sexually assaulted a string of women, including the plaintiff, former Temple University employee Andrea Constand.

Cosby acknowledges several of the encounters but said they were consensual. More than two dozen women have accused him of molesting them, sometimes after they had been drugged. Two lawsuits are pending, a defamation suit in Massachusetts and a civil sexual-assault case in California.

Cosby has been unsuccessful in his efforts to avoid a deposition in the latter case by having the suit, filed by lawyer Gloria Alred, thrown out.

Cosby’s lawyers did not immediately return calls for comment Monday from the AP. They have not yet outlined the reasons for their appeal – and many of the deposition excerpts have been widely distributed since their July 6 release.

U.S. District Judge Eduardo Robreno unsealed 16 court filings after concluding that the “stark contrast between Bill Cosby, the public moralist and Bill Cosby, the subject of serious allegations concerning improper (and perhaps criminal) conduct” was a matter of public interest.

Experts: Time is an enemy in solving Bobbi Kristina’s death

Medical examiners performing an autopsy on Bobbi Kristina Brown said Monday their initial findings turned up no obvious cause of death, and experts said the months that have passed since Brown was found face-down in a bathtub are working against authorities now tasked with solving how she died.

The Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office said in a statement Monday afternoon that it likely will be several weeks before it can rule on a manner and cause of death for the 22-year-old daughter of Whitney Houston. The agency said its initial autopsy turned up “no significant injuries” or “previously unknown medical conditions.” It said the next step is ordering lab tests and issuing subpoenas for documents – most likely Brown’s hospital records.

Experts said time is definitely an enemy in Brown’s case. Any drugs she might have taken passed from her bloodstream long ago. Physical injuries would have been healing even as Brown remained largely unresponsive. If police overlooked any physical evidence at Brown’s home after she was hospitalized Jan. 31, recovering it nearly six months later may be impossible.

True-crime author Ann Rule dies at age 83

SEATTLE

True-crime writer Ann Rule, who wrote more than 30 books, including a profile of her former co-worker, serial killer Ted Bundy, has died at age 83.

Rule died at Highline Medical Center at 10:30 p.m. Sunday, said Scott Thompson, a spokesman for CHI Franciscan Health. Rule’s daughter, Leslie Rule, said on Facebook that her mother had many health issues, including congestive heart failure.

“My mom died peacefully last night,” Leslie Rule wrote. “She got to see all of her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.”

Ann Rule’s first book, “The Stranger Beside Me,” profiled Bundy, whom she got to know while sharing the late shift at a Seattle suicide hot line. She has said she had a contract to write about an unknown serial killer before her co-worker was charged with the crimes.

Rule, who went to work briefly at the Seattle Police Department when she was 21, began writing for magazines such as “True Detective” in 1969. A biography on her author website says she has published more than 1,400 articles, mostly on criminal cases.

Associated Press