Cosby sues sex-assault accuser, lawyer for contract breach

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Bill Cosby has filed a breach-of-contract lawsuit against a woman whose 2005 sexual-assault accusation led to his recent arrest.

The lawsuit, filed a day before a key hearing in the criminal case against Cosby, names accuser Andrea Constand, her lawyer, her mother and the publisher of the National Enquirer.

The lawsuit remained under seal Wednesday, and Cosby's lawyers declined to comment on the nature of the allegations in it.

However, the defendants were all subject to confidentiality clauses that covered the settlement of lawsuits that Constand filed against Cosby and the tabloid, published by Boca Raton, Florida-based American Media Inc., in 2005.

Constand accused Cosby of drugging and molesting her at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004.

Her complaint wasn't prosecuted at the time, but new prosecutors reopened it last year and arrested Cosby in December, just before the 12-year statute of limitations expired. As part of their investigation, they interviewed Constand and her mother and obtained files from her lawyer.