Civil Jury Finds Bill Cosby Sexually Assaulted A Minor In The 1970s

A Santa Monica civil jury ruled in favor of plaintiff Judy Huth Tuesday. Huth sued Bill Cosby in 2014 for sexual battery, accusing him of assaulting her when she was a teenager in the 1970s. Huth was awarded $500,000 in damages, but no punitive damages by the 12-person jury.

Cosby did not appear in court during the two-week trial, claiming his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. His team will likely file an appeal for this case, as an earlier conviction against Cosby was tossed out by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court after he appealed. Cosby spent three years in prison on the overturned conviction and was released in 2021.

According to Huth, Cosby met her and a friend at a park near where he was filming a movie and invited them to his tennis club and then a party at the Playboy mansion. She claimed that Cosby, knowing they were underage, told the two teens “That if any of the Playboy bunnies asked their age, they should say they were 19.”

Huth claims that Cosby molested her in a bedroom of the Playboy Mansion. While she initially said that she was 15 when the assault occurred, she later amended her story to say she was 16 at the time. Cosby’s defense attempted to claim that he didn’t know Huth and derided her for changing the year on her initial court filings, but photographs of the two people together were revealed by the prosecution.

When questioned about the legal victory outside of the Los Angeles Superior Court, Huth said, “I was elated,” about the verdict. “It has been so many years, so many tears.”

Cosby’s spokesman Andrew Wyatt said he was happy with the verdict and, “What happened today wasn’t a victory, because they didn’t get the punitive damages.” He also said, “That amount will not cover the legal bills and will be appealing that matter.”