Comedian Bill Cosby's lawyer has filed documents in Los Angeles Superior Court accusing the woman who sued the comedian this week — for sexually assaulting her at the Playboy Mansion when she was 15 — of extorting him and attempting to shake him down.
In court papers filed Thursday, attorney Marty Singer said that Judy Huth, who is now 55, "unsuccessfully tried to get money from a tabloid" about 10 years ago by selling the story she told in her lawsuit filed Tuesday. In her complaint, Huth alleged that Cosby invited her and a 16-year-old friend to the Playboy Mansion after an afternoon of drinking beer and playing billiards. While at the mansion, Huth claims, Cosby asked her to sit next to him on a bed and proceeded to sexually molest her by attempting to put his hand down her pants, and then "taking her hand in his hand and performing a sex act on himself without her consent."
Because the tabloid did not publish her story, Singer wrote that Huth's lawyer, Marc Strecker, "made extortionate threats to Mr. Cosby about criminal penalties, coupled with ever-increasing demands for a six-figure payday to keep quiet about her long-since-expired claims." The demands began at $100,000 and ended at $250,000, Singer wrote.
Singer is asking a judge to dismiss Huth's lawsuit for several reasons, including that Huth "is expressly prohibited under the statute from identifying the defendant by his name" and "that bell cannot be unrung." Singer is also asking the court to impose $33,295 in monetary sanctions for Cosby's legal costs.
Strecker did not immediately respond to a request for comment by NBC News.