A civil jury in California discovered Monday that Bill Cosby was answerable for drugging and sexually assaulting a woman in 1972 and awarded her $59.25 million.
After a nearly two-week trial in Santa Monica, jurors discovered Cosby, 88, answerable for the sexual battery and assault of Donna Motsinger. They awarded her $17.5 million in previous damages and $1.75 million for future damages, together with “mental suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, inconvenience, grief, anxiety, humiliation, and emotional distress.”
Then in a second part of the trial Monday afternoon, they awarded a further $40 million in punitive damages.
Cosby’s lawyer, Jennifer Bonjean, stated in an e mail after the preliminary award earlier Monday that they’re disillusioned and totally intend to enchantment the decision. She didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon the punitive damages.
Deliberations lasted about two days.
The determination got here nearly 5 years after Cosby was freed from prison in Pennsylvania when the state Supreme Court threw out a legal conviction primarily based on related allegations. He has settled some related lawsuits and has been ordered to pay in others, however Monday’s award is probably going essentially the most he has needed to pay in a case.
“This verdict is not just about me – it’s about finally being heard and holding Mr. Cosby accountable,” Motsinger stated in an announcement. “I have carried the weight of what happened to me for more than 50 years. It never goes away. Today, a jury saw the truth and held him accountable. That means everything. I hope this gives strength to other survivors who are still waiting for their moment to be heard.”
Motsinger had been a server at a restaurant in Sausalito close to San Francisco who stated in her lawsuit, filed in 2023, that Cosby had invited her to his stand-up comedy present at a theater in close by San Carlos. Both have been in their 30s on the time. She stated Cosby gave her wine and two tablets that she believed have been aspirin, and that she was going in and out of consciousness as two males put her in a limousine.
“She woke up in her house with all her clothes off, except her underwear on – no top, no bra, and no pants,” the lawsuit stated. “She knew she had been drugged and raped by Bill Cosby.”
In courtroom filings, Cosby’s legal professionals argued that the allegations rested virtually fully on hypothesis and assumption, saying Motsinger “freely admits that she has no idea what happened.”
Motsinger’s lawsuit moved with shocking quickness by way of the California courts, taking simply 2 1/2 years from submitting till verdict whereas different lawsuits towards him stalled.
“We are grateful to the jury for their careful attention to the evidence and to Ms. Motsinger for the extraordinary courage it took to come forward,” stated Jesse Creed, certainly one of her attorneys from the Panish Shea Ravipudi regulation agency that represented her.
Cosby didn’t testify on the trial, whose witnesses included Andrea Constand, the Temple University sports activities administrator he was convicted of sexually assaulting in a Pennsylvania legal courtroom in 2018. The state’s Supreme Court threw out the decision and Cosby was free of jail after serving nearly three years of a three- to 10-year sentence.
Motsinger first made her allegations anonymously in a 2005 lawsuit filed by Constand.
The Associated Press doesn’t sometimes identify individuals who say they’ve been sexually abused until they arrive ahead publicly and consent to be named, as Constand and Motsinger have.
In 2022, a jury in Santa Monica awarded $500,000 to a woman who stated Cosby sexually assaulted her on the Playboy Mansion when she was a teen in 1975.
Motsinger’s lawsuit echoed allegations of rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment made by not less than 60 ladies towards Cosby, all of which he has denied.
The former stand-up comedy and tv celebrity as soon as broadly often known as “America’s Dad” grew to become the primary celeb tried and convicted in the #MeToo period earlier than his conviction was completely thrown out when appeals courtroom discovered he gave incriminating testimony in a deposition solely after believing he had immunity from prosecution.
This story has been up to date with extra data.