Civil jury finds Bill Cosby guilty of sexually abusing a 16 year old girl in 1975
Jurors found that Bill Cosby intentionally caused harmful sexual contact with Judy Huth, then 16, that he reasonably believed she was under 18, and that his conduct was driven by unnatural or abnormal sexual interest in a minor https://t.co/xR1Pvszti1 pic.twitter.com/5PFx92Vgz5
- The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) June 21, 2022
Jurors at a civil trial convicted Bill Cosby of sexually abusing a teenage girl at the Playboy Mansion in 1975. The Los Angeles County jury delivered the verdict in favor of Judy Huth, who is now 64, and awarded her $500,000. At the time of the crime, she was 16 and he was 37.
Jurors found that Cosby intentionally caused harmful sexual contact with Huth, that he reasonably believed she was under 18, and that his conduct was driven by unnatural or abnormal sexual interest in a minor. Huth’s lawsuit was one of the last remaining legal claims against him after his insurer settled many others against his will.
Details of the assault:
[Spoiler (click to open)]
Cosby met Huth and her high school friend on a Southern California film set in April of 1975, then took them to the Playboy Mansion a few days later.
Huth’s friend Donna Samuelson, a key witness, took photos at the mansion of Huth and Cosby, which loomed large at the trial.
Huth testified that in a bedroom adjacent to a game room where the three had been hanging out, Cosby attempted to put his hand down her pants, then exposed himself and forced her to perform a sex act.
Why people don't like lawyers:
Cosby attorney Jennifer Bonjean consistently challenged Huth and Samuelson over errors in detail in their stories, and a similarity in the accounts that the lawyer said represented coordination between the two women. This included the women saying in pre-trial depositions and police interviews that Samuelson had played Donkey Kong that day, a game not released until six years later. Bonjean made much of this, in what both sides came to call the “Donkey Kong defense.”
Goldberg asked jurors to look past the small errors in detail that he said were inevitable in stories that were 45 years old, and focus on the major issues behind the allegations. He pointed out to jurors that Samuelson said “games like Donkey Kong” when she first mentioned it in her deposition.
The Cosby lawyer began her closing arguments by saying, “It’s on like Donkey Kong,” and finished by declaring, “game over.”
ETA: info on two previous civil suits filed against him:
Andrea Constand alleged that in 1984 Cosby drugged her coffee and she awoke with her clothes partially removed. It was revealed in 2018 that Cosby had settled with Constand for $3.4 million.
Janice Dickinson alleged that Cosby drugged and raped her in 1982. Pablo Fenjves, Dickinson's ghostwriter, as well as former ReganBooks president Judith Regan, both asserted that Dickinson came forward with her allegations for her 2002 autobiography, but they were not included in the book because ReganBooks' parent company HarperCollins was afraid of being sued by Cosby. Cosby called her a liar (as did his lawyer Marty Singer), so she both of them for defamation. In July 2019, Cosby's insurance company, AIG, settled the lawsuit for an undisclosed amount
Some celebs who have defended him:
In a January 2015 Time magazine article about why black women should stop defending Cosby, actress Phylicia Rashad is quoted defending him: "What you're seeing is the destruction of a legacy. And I think it's orchestrated. I don't know why or who's doing it, but it's the legacy. And it's a legacy that is so important to the culture."
In a July 2015 USA Today article about how the actors of The Cosby Show responded to the allegations, Keshia Knight Pulliam: "All I can speak to is the man I know and I love the fact that he has been such an example [and] you can't take away from the great that he has done, the millions and millions of dollars he has given back to colleges and education, and just what he did with the Cosby Show and how groundbreaking that was. The Cosbys, we were the first family that no matter what race, religion, you saw yourself in", further addressing the charges against Cosby. "At the end of the day they are allegations ... I don't have that story to tell."
In September 2015, comedian Damon Wayans attacked the accusers, calling them "un-rape-able", and defended Cosby by stating "It's a money hustle."
In December 2015, actor and comedian Eddie Griffin suggested that Cosby was the victim of a conspiracy to destroy his image and that several other prominent African-American men had been victims of similar conspiracies: "There is a systematic effort to destroy every black male entertainer's image. They want us all to have an asterisk by our name." In reference to accusations of Cosby drugging women, he said, "First off you have to remember this was in the '70s. I'm old enough to remember the '70s. The '70s is a different time." He went on to say that that Quaaludes were frequently used to help people level out after cocaine use.
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