PHILADELPHIA — A federal judge in Philadelphia has denied a bid by Bill Cosby to block the release of files pertaining to the sexual assault lawsuit he settled a decade ago with Andrea Constand.

U.S. District Judge Anita Brody on Monday declined to quash a subpoena for the documents issued last year to Constand’s lawyer by seven women suing the entertainer in Massachusetts.

The dispute represents the latest in a series of ongoing legal battles for records relating to the 2005 civil litigation and criminal investigation into Constand’s claim that Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted her at his Cheltenham, Pa., home – the same incident for which he now faces prosecution in Montgomery County.

The Massachusetts plaintiffs want the file to bolster their own claims against Cosby, who they say defamed them when he denied sexually assaulting them. At least three had been prepared to testify if Constand’s lawsuit ever went to trial.

In court filings, their lawyer, Joseph Cammarata, cited portions of Cosby’s 2006 deposition, in which he says he gave Quaaludes to one of the women before having sex with her.

Cosby’s lawyers have argued that giving his accusers access to the full deposition and other records related to the Constand case would violate the confidentiality agreement all parties signed in 2006.

The criminal case is on hold as Cosby’s lawyers appeal a ruling that that a promise from a former district attorney in 2005 didn’t protect him from prosecution.

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