Bill Cosby seeks to keep court records out of public eye

A US magistrate will consider whether materials gathered in a defamation case filed by seven women against Bill Cosby can be kept out of the public eye.

The hearing in federal court will focus on a confidentiality agreement that Cosby’s lawyers are proposing in the case by the women, who are among dozens who say he sexually assaulted them decades ago.

The proposal calls for depositions and documents subpoenaed or produced during the pre-trial discovery phase to remain confidential for 14 days.

Either side would then be allowed to request the judge seal the records for longer, but the records would remain sealed until the judge decided on the extension .

Cosby’s lawyers say they are proposing the order because lawyers for the women seek “irrelevant and extraordinarily invasive and intimate details” of Cosby’s life and “have made clear they intend to publicise every aspect of discovery in the case”.

Among the information sought are the identities of all Cosby’s sexual partners since 1968 and his medical records over the past 35 years, including those specifically dealing with “erectile and/or other sexual dysfunction, sexual paraphilia, and/or sexual fetish”.

Cosby’s lawyers dismiss the arguments, stressing his need for protection from “annoyance, embarrassment, and undue prejudice” is reason enough for “limited confidentiality” in the case.