SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) " A 72-year-old New Hampshire woman who says Bill Cosby raped her in 1965 has withdrawn her civil defamation lawsuit against the comedian after a federal judge had allowed the case to move forward.
Kristina Ruehli's lawyer told The Associated Press on Friday that her client had decided not to pursue the case because the legal landscape has changed since she first filed suit in November. Cosby now faces criminal prosecution in Pennsylvania and similar civil actions are in play in Massachusetts and elsewhere by dozens of other accusers.
"Ms. Ruehli is 72 and her husband just celebrated his 79th birthday," Megan Deluhery, Ruehli's lawyer, said. "She will watch the pending cases proceed in solidarity with other survivors, those known and unknown, while returning her focus, if she can, on her daily life and trying to put behind her all the pain this ordeal has caused her."
Cosby spokesman Andrew Wyatt responded that the comedian hopes more lawsuits are dropped or dismissed and that Cosby looks forward to fighting the rest before a jury in court.
Wyatt also noted Ruehli's is the second defamation case against his client to be dismissed this year. In January, former teen actress Renita Hill's civil suit was dismissed by a federal judge in Pittsburgh who ruled that the Cosby camp's comments were protected by the First Amendment.