Bill Cosby settles lawsuit in drug, sexual assault case

PHILADELPHIA —  Bill Cosby settled a lawsuit Wednesday with a woman who said the entertainer drugged and sexually assaulted her at his home outside Philadelphia.

Terms of the settlement will remain confidential, according to a one-paragraph statement released jointly by both sides. Cosby’s publicist, David Brokaw, said there would be no further comment. The woman claimed that Cosby, 69, assaulted her at his mansion in Cheltenham, Pa., in early 2004 after giving her pills. Attorneys for Cosby say the comedian gave the woman Benadryl after she complained of stress and sleeping problems.

The federal judge presiding over the case earlier denied Cosby’s request for a gag order and the plaintiff’s request to shield the names of other women who say Cosby assaulted them. Some of the accusations raised by the other women go back for decades, and none has a pending lawsuit filed against him. The woman went to police about a year after the alleged encounter, but Montgomery County prosecutors declined to file criminal charges. She then filed a lawsuit.