Less than a year after Cosby’s sexual-assault conviction was successfully thrown out, and received dispensation from jail time, Cosby is dealing with an additional lawsuit in court.
Bill Cosby, 85, will go on trial in a Los Angeles court this week in a civil lawsuit brought by Judy Huth, who alleges that he sexually assaulted her at the Playboy Mansion in 1975 when she was aged 16. The case is one of several legal actions pending against Mr Cosby, who has denied any wrongdoing and is not expected to testify at this trial. According to Ms Huth’s 2014 lawsuit, the alleged incident took place when she met Mr Cosby after he visited Thousand Oaks Park in Los Angeles County, California where she was working as an extra on a film set.
According to court documents, in 1974, Mr Cosby reportedly gave his then 14-year-old female friend alcohol and then took her to the Playboy Mansion. The woman claims Mr Cosby took her to a bedroom and forced her to perform a sex act. During opening statements at the court in Santa Monica, California on Wednesday, a lawyer for Ms Huth said the comedian had “pounced” on his client. Nathan Goldberg said Mr Cosby had “a sense of entitlement, and no fear.”
When other women came forward with stories of their abuse at the hands of Mr. Cosby, “it was like a cork popped out of the bottle and all of her buried feelings rushed to the surface,” said Lisa Bloom, an attorney for one accuser. Mr. Cosby’s attorneys have acknowledged he met Ms. Huth and went to the Playboy Mansion with her, but they deny any assault took place. They also claim Ms. Huth was 18, not 16. They also question why she stayed on for hours after the alleged incident, watching a film and swimming in the pool.
Ms Huth’s case was dismissed by Mr Cosby’s defence lawyer, Jennifer Bonjean. She questioned why Ms Huth and a friend had preserved photographs from the visit as “mementos” of an alleged sexual assault. Mr Cosby is not required to attend the court proceedings, and is not expected to do so. His attorneys have previously said he has gone blind as a result of glaucoma.
Once known to millions as “America’s Dad”, comedian Bill Cosby has faced dozens of accusations of sexual assault, misconduct and rape stretching back to the mid-1960s. In 2018, he was convicted of drugging and molesting a woman at his home in 2004 and sentenced to three to 10 years in prison. The conviction was overturned by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court last year, however, he remains behind bars as he awaits retrial on sexual assault charges.
