Defamation Lawsuit Filed Against Bill Cosby by Accuser Tamara Green
— -- Tamara Green is one of at least 18 women now accusing Bill Cosby of sexual assault but she could be the first of the women to face the comedian in court.
Green, who first publicly accused Cosby of assault in 2005, announced Wednesday in a video conference that she has filed a defamation suit. Her lawyer Joseph Cammarata claimed Cosby damaged her reputation when his representative "publicly branded" her a "liar."
“I want my name restored,” Green said about the lawsuit, which was filed in Springfield, Mass.
Green, now 66 and a licensed attorney, alleges the star of TV’s “The Cosby Show” attacked her in the early 1970s when she was an aspiring model and actress. Green claims that Cosby, now 77, drugged her and then sexually assaulted her.
Green went public with her claims in 2005, after the statute of limitations to bring charges against Cosby had passed. Green says that at that time, in 2005, representatives for Cosby denied her allegation and claimed the comedian did not even know her.
When Green came forward again in February of this year, Cosby’s publicist issued a statement to Newsweek magazine saying, “This is a 10-year-old, discredited accusation that proved to be nothing at the time, and is still nothing.”
Green’s lawyer, Joseph Cammarata, says the lawsuit is about justice for Green and Cosby’s other accusers.
“She realized that there was an opportunity to have her allegations against Mr. Cosby heard in a court of law, where the truth can be tried,” Cammarata told ABC News.
Green is among at least 18 women to come forward with similar claims against Cosby in recent weeks. Cosby has never been criminally charged stemming from any of the sex-abuse allegations, many of which date back to the 1970s and 1980s.
Many of the claims surfaced for the first time in the last few weeks, leading Cosby attorney Martin Singer to call them “unsubstantiated, fantastical stories . . . [that] have escalated far past the point of absurdity.”
“There’s always been a slight doubt in everyone’s minds as to the veracity of any of the allegations against Bill Cosby because he’s a rich and powerful and famous man,” Green said Wednesday. “This will give us a forum where we speak our stories and tell our truths.”
An attorney for Cosby responded to the lawsuit with a statement to ABC News.
“We are very confident that we will prevail in this proceeding and we will pursue claims against the attorneys who filed this action,” the statement read.
