Janice Dickinson sues Bill Cosby for calling her liar about rape allegations

LOS ANGELES, May 20 (UPI) -- Former supermodel and television personality Janice Dickinson filed a defamation lawsuit against Bill Cosby on Wednesday after his lawyers said she was lying when she said the comedian sexually assaulted her.

Dickinson, 60, told Entertainment Tonight in November that Cosby drugged and raped her back in 1982 when she was 27.

Immediately after her interview, Cosby's lawyer, Martin Singer, said Dickinson's allegations were "a lie" and that the story contradicted details in her 2002 autobiography and an interview with the New York Observer.

"She asked for a retraction (after Singer's statement), he refused, so she is suing," Dickinson's lawyer, Lisa Bloom told USA Today.

Dickinson's lawsuit says she was hurt professionally and personally when Singer called her a liar. She said she has lost business because of what he said.

"Defendant Cosby knows that he drugged and raped Ms. Dickinson," the lawsuit says. "He knows that calling her rape disclosure a lie was a false statement."

Dickinson is one of a number of women who have come forward in recent months to accuse Cosby of sexual assault, but because the statute of limitations has run out on most of those cases, no criminal charges have been filed against the comedian. A group of three of the accusers have also filed a defamation lawsuit against Cosby after he denied their sexual assault allegations.