Cosby attorneys appealing order to 3rd Circuit

ATTORNEYS FOR Bill Cosby yesterday filed a notice appealing a judge's order earlier this month that unsealed certain documents in a civil case. The case was filed by a former Temple University employee who has accused the actor-comedian of sexually assaulting her.

Attorneys Patrick O'Connor and George Gowen of the Cozen O'Connor law firm wrote in their one-page notice that they are appealing to the Third Circuit in Philadelphia U.S. District Judge Eduardo Robreno's July 6 order. O'Connor and Gowen did not return calls from the Daily News.

Robreno, a federal judge in Philadelphia, had unsealed several motions and other court documents from 2005 and 2006 in a civil-lawsuit case filed by Andrea Constand against Cosby, now 78.

Constand had worked at Temple University as the women's basketball's director of operations. She accused Cosby of drugging and sexually assaulting her in his Cheltenham home in 2004.

The court filings, unsealed at the request of the Associated Press, contained parts of Cosby's deposition, and quoted him saying he obtained Quaaludes to give women before sexual encounters.

In Constand's case, Cosby said he engaged in consensual activities with her after giving her three Benadryl pills for stress.

The New York Times, in an article published over the weekend of July 18 and 19, said it had obtained Cosby's full deposition transcript from a court-reporting service, and published more excerpts.

Cosby has never been charged with a crime and has repeatedly denied the accusations of sexual assault, now made by more than two dozen women.