Sexual abuse lawsuit against Cosby takes backseat to criminal case

By Dana Feldman LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The lawyer for a woman accusing Bill Cosby of sexual abuse in a California civil suit said on Tuesday she has canceled plans to take a sworn deposition from another woman listed as a potential witness against the comedian in a Pennsylvania criminal case. Attorney Gloria Allred said the criminal sexual assault case Cosby faces in suburban Philadelphia takes precedence over the lawsuit her client, Judy Huth, has brought against the 78-year-old entertainer in Los Angeles and could be undermined by the deposition in question. Allred had won a court order call on former donut shop employee Margie Shapiro, one of dozens of women who have come forward publicly in recent years to accuse Cosby of sexual wrongdoing, to give a deposition in Huth's civil case. But on Tuesday Allred said she had asked to withdraw the subpoena after prosecutors included Shapiro in a list of 13 women they have asked the Pennsylvania judge for permission to call as witnesses in Cosby's criminal trial, now set for next June. Allowing Shapiro to be deposed in the civil case would give Cosby's criminal defense team a glimpse of what Shapiro might say under oath at his criminal trial and a chance to look for inconsistencies they could later exploit under cross-examination of her on the witness stand. "We think that they are attempting to use civil discovery to get around the limits on criminal discovery in the criminal case," Allred told reporters after a status conference on the lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court in Santa Monica. An attorney for Cosby, Angela Agrusa, addressed reporters separately, suggesting that Allred and her client had something to hide. "Why does Miss Allred not want them to testify under oath? What does she not want us to know," Agrusa asked. Cosby, who built a long career on family friendly comedy, including his long-running NBC sitcom "The Cosby Show," has acknowledged marital infidelity on his part. But he has denied assaulting anyone and insisted that all his sexual encounters were consensual. He is charged in Pennsylvania with drugging and sexually assaulting a former Temple University employee, Andrea Constand, at his home in 2004. Huth, now in her 50s, alleges in her lawsuit that Cosby plied her with alcohol and molested her in 1974 at the Playboy Mansion when she was aged 15. (Writing and additional reporting by Steve Gorman; Editing by Sandra Maler)