BOSTON >> An attorney for a woman who says Bill Cosby raped her more than four decades ago has urged a federal appeals court to revive her defamation lawsuit against the comedian.

F. William Salo told a three-judge panel of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals today that Cosby destroyed Katherine McKee’s reputation when his lawyer wrote a letter demanding a retraction of a 2014 New York Daily News story about her rape allegations.

Cosby’s attorney told the judges that a federal court in Massachusetts was right to dismiss her lawsuit. Alan Greenberg said McKee would have to prove Cosby acted with actual malice because she became a kind of public figure when she gave the interview.

The judges are expected to rule in the coming weeks.