Cosby Accuser Gets New Lawyer to Defend Against Castor
The lawyers from Bennett Bricklin & Saltzburg have not been involved in prior Cosby-related litigation.
December 15, 2017 at 03:00 PM
2 minute read
Andrea Constand exits the courtroom during deliberations in Bill Cosby's sexual assault trial at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pa., Friday, June 16, 2017.
Andrea Constand, one of many women who have accused Bill Cosby of sexually assault, has new defense counsel against former prosecutor Bruce Castor's claims that Constand tried to ruin his political career.
Victoria Komarnicki and Margot Smith, both from Philadelphia-based Bennett Bricklin & Saltzburg, entered their appearance on Constand's behalf Wednesday in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas. Lawyers Dolores Troiani and Bebe Kivitz, who have represented Constand for well over a decade in relation to her allegations against Cosby, are also named as defendants in Castor's suit and are represented by Swartz Campbell's Jeffrey McCarron.
Komarnicki, a partner at Bennett Bricklin, declined to comment on the case Friday. Her practice focuses on personal injury defense, including defamation cases. She has not previously been involved in any Cosby-related litigation.
Constand's allegations form the basis of the criminal case against Cosby, who faces retrial in April on three counts of aggravated indecent assault. Cosby's first trial, in June, ended with a hung jury.
Castor was the district attorney for Montgomery County in 2005 when Constand initially brought her sexual assault allegations against Cosby. Castor publicly announced his decision not to bring charges against Cosby at the time, and the comedian wasn't criminally charged until a decade later, after prosecutors obtained more evidence against him.
Constand sued Castor in 2015, alleging that Castor defamed her in his remarks about Constand's allegations against Cosby. The case is ongoing in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
In his suit against Constand, Castor alleges that she filed her defamation suit to hurt Castor's chances in the 2015 race for Montgomery County district attorney.
In preliminary objections to Castor's complaint, Troiani and Kivitz argued that because the defamation suit is ongoing, Castor's abuse of process claim cannot go forward.
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