A jury on Tuesday dominated towards Invoice Cosby in a civil lawsuit introduced towards him by a lady who stated he sexually assaulted her on the Playboy Mansion in 1975, when she was 16.
Judy Huth testified that Cosby molested her. She accused him of making an attempt to place his hand down her tight pants and exposing himself earlier than he compelled her to the touch him sexually on a mattress in a “blue room,” which she stated was adjoining to the sport room on the mansion.
Huth, now 64, testified that Cosby saved pursuing her after she instructed him that she was “15 or 16” years previous. She claims to have instructed Cosby that she was on her menstrual cycle — though she was not — in hopes that he would cease.
“I used to be making an attempt to deflect,” she stated. “However he didn’t cease. I simply closed my eyes. … It was so quick. Possibly 5 minutes. Fast.”
The jury awarded Huth $500,000 in damages.
Huth instructed reporters after the decision that the jury’s discovering that she was sexually abused was extra necessary than the financial quantity.
“I used to be elated,” she stated of listening to the decision. “Significantly, it’s been so a few years, so many tears.”
The trial represents one of many final remaining authorized claims towards Cosby after his Pennsylvania legal conviction was thrown out by an appeals court docket final yr. The 84-year-old actor didn’t attend the trial and didn’t testify.
Throughout closing arguments, a lawyer for Invoice Cosby instructed jurors they should look previous years of public accusations towards him and contemplate solely the proof offered by Huth.
Cosby’s protection crew has centered on calling Huth a liar as a result of she has modified the timeline of the story. In a 2014 lawsuit, she stated the assault happened in 1973 or 1974. However earlier than the trial started, Huth and her attorneys stated that additional investigation of the proof allowed them to find out that it really occurred within the spring of 1975.
Throughout closing arguments, Cosby lawyer Jennifer Bonjean stated Huth and her legal professionals didn’t come near proving “her 50-year-old, he-said-she-said case.”
“Are you able to think about how exhausting it’s to defend a case once you begin with the label of sexual predator?” Bonjean instructed the jurors, reminding them they have been chosen as a result of they promised they’d be capable to contemplate solely the information offered in court docket. “If we have been simply going to strive folks based mostly on labels, then why have trials in any respect?”
Huth’s lawyer Nathan Goldberg instructed the jury that “my consumer deserves to have Mr. Cosby held accountable for what he did.”
“Every of you is aware of in your coronary heart that Mr. Cosby sexually assaulted Miss Huth,” Goldberg stated.
Huth stated the decision was a vindication.
“It’s been torture; it has. Simply to be ripped aside. , thrown beneath the bus, backed over,” she stated at a information convention. “And this to me is simply such an enormous victory, it truly is — to all victims.”
Doha Madani and Phil Helsel contributed.
