Four more women are planning to join the ongoing federal defamation suit against Bill Cosby, the New York Times reports. Barbara Bowman, Joan Tarshis, Louisa Moritz, and Angela Leslie say Cosby defamed them when he let his former lawyer say they were lying about being sexually assaulted by the comedian. They bring the total number of plaintiffs in the suit — filed in Massachusetts by Kristina Ruehli — up to seven; three more women, including Janice Dickinson, have filed their own defamation suits against Cosby’s team for denying their charges. As the statute of limitations has passed in most of the allegations against Cosby, the suits have been widely interpreted as a way for the alleged victims to seek some sort of legal recourse against the star. As Joseph Cammarata, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, told the Times, “This is a way for the women to get their day in court on the sexual abuse issues and attempt to clear their names. They opened up a door for the women to go into court that otherwise was closed.”
