BOSTON (AP) — A federal appeals court has rejected an attempt to revive a Massachusetts defamation lawsuit filed against Bill Cosby by a woman who claims he raped her in a Detroit hotel decades ago.
The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston on Wednesday upheld a lower-court ruling dismissing Kathrine McKee’s case.
The former actress says Cosby defamed her in a letter his lawyer sent to the New York Daily News demanding a retraction of a 2014 story about her rape allegation. The judge who dismissed her case says the letter was protected by the First Amendment.
An appeals court panel rejected McKee’s argument her newspaper interview didn’t make her a public figure and therefore she didn’t need to prove actual malice.
Cosby’s lawyers had applauded the dismissal of the case.
