A woman who accused Bill Cosby of sexually abusing her more than five decades ago was awarded $19.2 million by a Southern California civil jury Monday, an attorney for the plaintiff said.
Punitive damages are still pending in the 2023 lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court in Santa Monica by Donna Motsinger, who accused him of sexual battery, alleging that he abused a server whom he met at a Northern California restaurant in 1972.
Cosby, 88, denied the allegations. In a statement, a former representative for Cosby said he was “deeply saddened” by the verdict, which he said sets a dangerous precedent “to allow decade-old allegations, presented without evidence or proof, to stand.”
According to the lawsuit, Motsinger said she met Cosby at the Sausalito restaurant where she worked. He followed her home, the suit alleges, and asked her to attend one of his stand-up acts at a theater south of San Francisco.
After giving Motsinger a ride to Circle Star Theater in a limo and providing a glass of wine, the suit alleges, she began to feel sick and Cosby gave her what she believed was an aspirin.
“Next thing she knew, she was going in and out of consciousness while two men attending to Mr. Cosby were putting her in the limousine with Mr. Cosby,” the suit states.
She awoke at her home with all of her clothes off except her underwear, according to the suit.
“She knew she had been drugged and raped by Bill Cosby,” the suit alleges.
Dozens of women have publicly accused Cosby of sexual misconduct, including a college sports administrator in Pennsylvania who said he drugged and raped her in 2004.
Cosby was convicted of three felony counts of aggravated indecent assault in connection with the Pennsylvania allegations in 2018, but that case was overturned in 2021 after the state Supreme Court found that he was denied protection against self-incrimination.
Lawsuits filed by several women in Nevada three years ago accusing Cosby of sexual assault remain pending.
Cosby has consistently denied all allegations of sexual abuse. After his convictions were overturned, he said he had never “changed my stance or my story.”
