Image Source: PBS
In a legal case brought by Judy Huth, a woman who claimed Bill Cosby sexually abused her as a teenager in the 1970s; a Los Angeles jury held the beleaguered comic responsible.
Huth received a $500,000 damage award from the jury, which was made up of four men and eight women. Punitive damages weren’t given out.
Huth initially brought the lawsuit in 2014, alleging both intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress and sexual battery. According to the initial petition, Huth was 15 years old when the incident occurred, but that date was later changed to 1975, when he was 16.
Cosby, 84, has refuted all allegations of sexual assault through his attorneys.
Huth described meeting Cosby at a park where he was filming a movie in her complaint. Cosby allegedly persuaded Huth and a buddy to join him at his tennis club after becoming friends with them. Huth claimed that the comedian invited the young women to a residence where he offered them numerous alcoholic beverages before escorting them to the Playboy Mansion.
Huth claimed that even though Cosby was aware of her and her friend’s ages, he told the teenagers to “say they were 19” if any Playboy bunnies inquired about their age.
Huth added that Cosby had taken her to a bedroom in the mansion where he had abused her sexually.
When Huth briefly spoke with reporters in front of a Santa Monica courthouse, she was beaming.
She stated of the decision, “I was ecstatic. This case “proves that you may run, but you can’t hide,” said Nathan Goldberg, an attorney for Huth. “It has been so many years, so many tears.”
As they made statements to the media, Cosby’s spokesperson and lawyers were harshly jeered by spectators.
Cosby’s team intends to pursue an appeal because he was not present for the trial or the decision.
More than 50 women have accused Bill Cosby of sexual assault since 2005. Cosby spent under three years in a Pennsylvania state jail after being found guilty of assaulting Andrea Constand in Philadelphia. His conviction was later overturned on appeal. In September 2021, he was allowed to leave prison.
