Andrea Constand filed a "bogus" lawsuit just days before the 2015 election for Montgomery County district attorney as a calculated revenge move against a former D.A. who refused to prosecute Bill Cosby, alleges a complaint filed Wednesday in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court.
According to court filings, Bruce Castor Jr., the plaintiff in the case, was disadvantaged in the 2015 race against Kevin Steele when Constand and her lawyers engaged in a "smear" campaign to harm his candidacy and political career. Castor claims the defendants filed a "tactically timed, patently frivolous and knowingly false lawsuit" against him alleging “defamation” and “false light” and seeking hundreds of thousands of dollars.
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Castor had declined to prosecute Cosby, citing inconsistencies in Constand's story. According to the complaint, he encouraged the parties to resolve the matter via a civil suit.
"Because of Castor’s actions, these Defendants resolved the civil lawsuit against Cosby for an amount, upon information and belief, well into the millions of dollars," the complaint adds.
Castor declined to comment for this story.
An attorney for the defendants, Jeff McCarron of Swartz Campbell in Center City, had no immediate comment on the lawsuit.
Steele was elected district attorney after his campaign hit Castor for his perceived failure to advocate for victims of sexual assault, specifically Constand. Castor lost by 11 percentage points.
In his court filing, Castor says he was up by as many as 10 polling points prior to the lawsuit filed by Constand and her lawyers. "Castor had won four countywide elections in a row and this was certain to be his fifth," the complaint says.
Constand, a former Temple University employee and basketball coach who now lives in Canada, accuses Cosby of drugging and molesting her at his Cheltenham, Montgomery County mansion, and many other women have come forward with similar accusations in recent years.
Castor, represented by The Beasley Firm of Center City Philadelphia, is seeking a jury trial. Named as defendants are Constand lawyers Bebe H. Kivitz and her firm, Jacobs Kivitz & Drake, LLC of Center City, and Dolores M. Troiani of Berwyn, Chester County.
“Ms. Constand, her attorneys, and codefendants acted in concert with the purpose of satisfying their desires for revenge, greed, and to harm Castor,” the complaint alleges. “The Defendants attempted to take advantage of the timing of the election so as to cause maximum harm to Castor and to further their own agendas.”
The complaint alleges defendants Kivitz and Troiani filed their lawsuit on Oct. 26, 2015, about a week before the election for district attorney, in order to ensure the greatest harm to Castor’s chances at victory.
Castor’s complaint characterizes Constand’s public “action” as a “perversion of the legal process designed to achieve an unauthorized result and for an unauthorized purpose for which the legal process was not designed.”
Part of what he claims as losses and damages include the election itself, legal expenses to fight an “outlandish” lawsuit, time, energy and “skills necessary to address the lies created and propagated by all defendants.”
Castor claims Constand, now 44, sued him to destroy his political and legal career by “the scurrilous accusations” made in the lawsuit.
Cosby, now 80, has long been known as “America’s Dad” for his role as Cliff Huxtable on “The Cosby Show,” which ran from 1984 to 1982 on NBC.
A civil suit against Cosby alleges he gave Constand, then 29, three blue pills on or around March 16, 2004 in his Cheltenham home to get to her “ease her tension and help her to relax,” the complaint reads.
It also claims several inconsistencies in Constand’s statements to police, including:
• When the alleged assault occurred
• Whether Constand had ever had sexual contact with Cosby prior to the night of the alleged assault
• Whether Constand had ever been alone with Cosby prior to the alleged assault
• Whether Constand went to Cosby’s house before the alleged assault, and was alone with him, drinking wine and brandy/cognac in front of the fireplace;
• Whether Constand and Cosby exchanged flirtatious behavior and multiple gifts prior to the alleged assault
All in all, Castor’s complaint claims that Constand made multiple inconsistent and far-reaching statements to various investigating authorities regarding many material aspects of her accusations against Cosby.