Five women who have long accused Bill Cosby of sexually assaulting them early in their careers have filed the latest lawsuit against the 85-year-old comedian — with this one claiming NBCUniversal, a studio and a production company were complicit in the abuse.
The lawsuit comes more than a year after Cosby left prison when his 2018 sexual assault conviction in Pennsylvania was overturned. Earlier this year, a Los Angeles jury awarded $500,000 to a woman who said Cosby had sexually abused her at the Playboy Mansion when she was a teenager in 1975.
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Eleven months after he was freed from prison, Cosby will again be the defendant in a sexual assault proceeding. Ms Huth, who is now 64, alleges that in 1975 when she was 16, he sexually assaulted her at the Playboy Mansion. AP -
Andrew Wyatt, spokesman for Bill Cosby, arrives outside Santa Monica Courthouse in Los Angeles for the start of the civil trial brought by Judy Huth against the actor. AFP -
Judy Huth at Santa Monica Courthouse in LA. Reuters -
Defence lawyer Jennifer Bonjean with team members Haley Coolbaugh and Ashley Cohen. AFP -
Ms Bonjean speaks to reporters. AFP -
Judy Huth's lawyer Gloria Allred speaks to the media. Reuters -
Ms Huth navigates the press outside the Santa Monica Courthouse. Reuters -
Gloria Allred speaks to the media as she arrives for opening statements in the civil suit against Bill Cosby. Reuters -
The suit, the latest in a raft of legal actions against Cosby, who was once one of the most popular performers on US television, alleges that the disgraced comedian sexually assaulted Ms Huth when she was a teenage girl almost five decades ago. AFP -
Cosby was welcomed home after Pennsylvania's highest court overturned his sexual assault conviction and ordered him to be released from prison on June 30 last year. Reuters -
Cosby's conviction was overturned in 2018. AP -
Pennsylvania’s highest court has overturned comedian Cosby’s sex assault conviction in 2021, after they found an agreement with a previous prosecutor prevented him from being charged in the case. AP -
Cosby with his wife, Camille in 2018. AP -
Camille Cosby married the actor in 1964. AP -
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Board of Governors expelled Cosby and director Roman Polanski from its membership. AP
The lawsuit filed on Monday under New York’s one-year window for adults to file sexual abuse complaints involves accusers Lili Bernard, Eden Tirl, Jewel Gittens, Jennifer Thompson and Cindra Ladd. It alleges that each woman was abused or assaulted by the A-list actor after meeting him on set or through entertainment circles from the late 1960s to the 1990s.
“It was well-known that Bill Cosby would regularly take young women into his dressing room and when you read the complaint you’ll see there were instances where staff saw this happening and even encouraged the plaintiff to submit,” said lawyer Jordan Rutsky, who represents all five women.
“This was not a hidden secret that Bill Cosby was doing these things. It was just accepted.”
The lawsuit alleged that NBC, Kaufman Astoria Studios and Carsey-Werner Television “facilitated the sexual assault of women” by failing to check Cosby’s power and proclivities, and failed to protect the women from being alone with him, because they profited from his work. In at least some cases, the lawsuit said, Cosby first drugged the woman with pills he provided and plied them with alcohol.
Cosby spokesman Andrew Wyatt said the “accusers have resurfaced to file a frivolous civil lawsuit” against the comic actor. He said they hoped to get quick settlements from the corporate defendants and use those funds to finance their pursuit of Cosby.
A spokeswoman for NBCUniversal, the network that aired The Cosby Show from 1984 to 1992, said the company would not comment on legal issues. Neither Kaufman Astoria nor Carsey-Werner immediately returned phone or email messages left on Tuesday afternoon seeking comment.
“This isn’t about justice for victims of alleged sexual assault, it’s all about money,” Mr Wyatt said in a statement, echoing the defence arguments in Cosby’s criminal retrial, when a Pennsylvania jury convicted him of drugging and sexually assaulting a Temple University employee at his home in the Philadelphia area in 2004.
Cosby served nearly three years in prison before the state Supreme Court overturned the conviction, finding that he gave incriminating testimony in a deposition about the encounter only after believing he had immunity from prosecution. The trial judge and an intermediate appeals court had found no evidence of such immunity.
Bernard, who played Mrs Minifield on The Cosby Show in the early 1990s, also has a pending lawsuit against Cosby in New Jersey over an alleged encounter in Atlantic City.
Seven other accusers received a settlement from Cosby’s insurers after the Pennsylvania conviction over a defamation lawsuit they had filed in Massachusetts. Their lawsuit said Cosby and his agents disparaged them in denying their allegations of abuse.
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Victims Elizabeth Stein and Sarah Ransome arrive at the US District Court for the Southern District of New York for the sentencing hearing of Ghislaine Maxwell. AFP -
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Ms Stein and Ms Ransome speak with the media outside the courthouse. AFP -
The trial of Maxwell, the jet-setting socialite who once consorted with royals, presidents and billionaires, has been a media circus. AP -
Victim Annie Farmer and her lawyer Sigrid McCawley arrive at US District Court for the Southern District of New York for Maxwell's sentencing. AFP -
Spectators wait to enter the court for Maxwell's sentencing hearing. AFP -
Maxwell's siblings Isabel Maxwell, Kevin Maxwell and Christine Maxwell arrive for the sentencing of their sister. AFP -
Ms Farmer, a victim of Jeffery Epstein, arrives with lawyer Sigrid McCawley for Maxwell's sentencing. Reuters -
Spectators wait to enter the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. AFP
