Bill Cosby has been ordered by a California civil jury to pay more than $19 million in damages to Donna Motsinger after jurors found the disgraced comedian liable for drugging and sexually assaulting her in 1972.
The verdict was delivered Monday in Santa Monica after a nearly two-week trial and just over a day of jury deliberations. Jurors concluded that the 88-year-old Cosby committed sexual assault and battery against Motsinger, who brought the lawsuit under a recent change in California law that expanded the time window for adult survivors to file civil sexual assault claims.
The panel also found he acted with "malice, oppression, or fraud," allowing jurors to consider additional punitive damages in a separate phase, according to NBC News.
Motsinger testified that she was a young waitress in Sausalito, California, when Cosby became a regular at the restaurant where she worked and later invited her to one of his shows in 1972.
She told the jury Cosby gave her wine, and possibly a pill, in a vehicle on the way to the performance, after which she slipped in and out of consciousness. She said she later woke up at home, partially undressed, and realized she had been drugged and raped.
The jury awarded Motsinger $17.5 million for past emotional suffering and $1.75 million for future suffering, including loss of enjoyment of life, anxiety, humiliation, and other distress. The total compensatory award comes to about $19.25 million, with the question of punitive damages still to be decided. The case marks one of the largest civil judgments to date against Cosby, arising from sexual assault allegations. Newsweek reported.
Cosby's attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, said the defense is disappointed in the verdict and plans to appeal. Cosby did not testify and continues to deny that he drugged or assaulted Motsinger, insisting that any encounter would have been consensual if it occurred. His lawyers argued that Motsinger's memories from more than 50 years ago were unreliable and that her account relied on speculation.
The ruling is the latest legal setback for Cosby, once a major television star whose public image has been destroyed by a wave of accusations from dozens of women. In 2018, he was convicted in Pennsylvania of sexually assaulting Andrea Constand.
This was a conviction that was overturned in 2021, leading to his release from prison. In a separate California civil case in 2022, a jury ordered Cosby to pay $500,000 to Judy Huth, who said he sexually abused her at the Playboy Mansion in 1975 when she was 16, as per the New York Times.
Originally published on Lawyer Herald
