Bill Cosby found liable over sexual assault of teenager in 1975 as judge award $500,000 in damages

Disgraced American slapstick comedian/actor, Invoice Cosby sexually assaulted a teen on the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles in 1975, a jury has discovered.

The sufferer, Judy Huth testified to the civil trial that Cosby, 84, had pressured her to carry out a intercourse act on him on the venue when she was 16 years previous.

Jurors in Los Angeles County dominated in favor of Judy Huth, who’s now 64, awarding her $500,000 in a authorized defeat for the once-beloved comic and star of The Cosby Present.

Jurors discovered that Cosby deliberately brought on dangerous sexual contact with Huth, who he fairly believed was beneath 18, and that his conduct was pushed by unnatural or irregular sexual curiosity in a minor.

In courtroom filings and in testimony on the trial, Huth stated she and a good friend met Cosby at a park, and that the actor later took her and her good friend to the Playboy Mansion. She testified that Cosby, who was 37 on the time, assaulted her, forcing her to carry out a intercourse act with out her consent, a declare the actor has denied.

Huth, who first filed a lawsuit in opposition to Cosby in 2014, initially stated the incident came about in 1974 when she was 15, however later concluded she was mistaken concerning the 12 months and that it occurred in 1975.

The choice brings to an in depth one of many closing remaining authorized claims in opposition to 84-year-old Cosby, who greater than 50 ladies have accused of sexual assaults over almost 5 many years.

Lower than a 12 months in the past, Cosby walked free from jail after his sexual assault conviction was thrown out after extra than 50 ladies got here ahead with abuse allegations in opposition to the person as soon as often called America’s Dad, fees he denies.

The civil case in opposition to Cosby in Santa Monica, California, was the primary to go to trial and represented one of many final remaining authorized actions in opposition to him. Filed in 2014, it was delayed for years by Cosby’s prison proceedings.

Ms. Huth’s go well with alleged that he introduced her and one other underage good friend to the notorious mansion, lured her to a bedoom, and compelled himself on her. When she resisted, he pressured her to carry out a intercourse act on him, she testified.

In tears on the stand, Ms. Huth instructed the courtroom she felt “mad, duped and silly” after the incident, as her legal professionals introduced a photograph of her and Cosby contained in the mansion.

Cosby was not required to seem in particular person on the trial and by no means did, however the courtroom noticed a 2015 deposition by Ms Huth’s attorneys, during which the comic stated he didn’t keep in mind her and wouldn’t have pursued intercourse with a minor.

Legal professionals for Cosby sought to poke holes in Ms Huth’s claims, noting she had initially stated she was 15 on the time of the incident, however modified that element weeks earlier than the trial.

They claimed Ms Huth had supplied her photograph with Cosby to tabloids and others seeking a payout.

Jurors have been additionally proven a videotaped 2016 deposition of late Playboy founder Hugh Hefner – an in depth good friend of Cosby within the Seventies – who stated it might have been “very uncommon” for underage ladies to be allowed contained in the mansion.

Recognized to hundreds of thousands for his portrayal of TV dad Cliff Huxtable on The Cosby Present, the comedian has confronted accusations of sexual assault, misconduct and rape stretching again to the mid-Sixties.

In 2018, he was convicted of drugging and molesting a girl at his dwelling in 2004 and sentenced to a few to 10 years in jail.

The conviction, nonetheless, was overturned by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court docket final 12 months. He was launched from jail after serving almost three years.