- A jury in a civil suit in California found
Bill Cosby guilty of sexually abusing a 16-year-old Judy Huth at the Playboy Mansion in 1975. - Huth was awarded $500,000 in damages.
A jury in a civil suit in California found Bill Cosby liable on Tuesday for sexually abusing a 16-year-old Judy Huth at the Playboy Mansion in 1975, the Associated Press reported.
The courts awarded Huth $500,000 in damages, though no punitive compensation was awarded. Huth, who filed the lawsuit in 2014, alleged that Cosby molested her.
Cosby's legal team denied the claims and called them a "fabrication."
Huth, 64, said that Cosby attempted to force her into putting her hand down his pants after encouraging her and a friend to lie about their age at the Playboy Mansion. Huth also said that Cosby had exposed himself and "performed a sex act on himself" even after she lied about menstruating in an attempt to discourage him.
Huth's friend Donna Samuelson, who said she was with Huth that day, took to the stand to say that Huth was in distress.
"She said 'I want to go, I wanna leave,' she was crying," Samuelson said, according to The Associated Press.
As a result of this decision, Cosby will not be sent to jail in this civil decision.
In the December 2014 lawsuit, Huth claimed she met Cosby when she was 15 at Lacy Park in San Marino, California in 1974. Huth claimed in the lawsuit that she and a friend saw Cosby on set filming a movie in the park, and that he invited the two girls to watch him film "Let's Do It Again."
Over the next days, Huth alleged that she and her friend were invited to Cosby's tennis club, where they were given drinks and then invited to the Playboy Mansion. Huth alleged that Cosby told her and her friend to tell the greeters at the mansion that they were 19 years old. Huth claimed that at the mansion, Cosby brought her to a bedroom where he first tried to put her hand in his pants and then made her fondle him.
At the outset of the trial, Huth's friend, Donna Samuelson, 64, was the first witness to testify.
Huth's case was on hold as Cosby served jail time for his criminal
The Pennsylvania State Supreme Court that threw out Cosby's conviction found that his due process rights were violated. The decision bars a retrial of his case and came as a result of a deal with a former prosecutor, which prevented Cosby from being criminally charged in the case. With that deal and because this case is civil, Cosby cannot go to jail even if found liable in Huth's case.
She also reported the allegations to the LA County DA's office, which did not pursue criminal charges because of the statute of limitations law at the time, according to The Los Angeles Times.
Ultimately, Huth's case was able to move forward in court because of a change to California's statute of limitations law in 2020, linked partially to the US Women's Olympic Gymnastics team's sexual assault suit against Larry Nassar. It allows adults who claim to have been victims of sexual abuse as minors – having repressed the memories – to file claims.
While Cosby was in jail, 11 other civil cases were settled. Ten of them were settled by his former insurance company, his legal team told The New York Times.
In a May 5, 2022 court filing, Huth's team changed the date of the allegations from 1974 to 1975 – which drew the ire of Cosby's team.
Ahead of the trial, Huth's attorneys argued that due to materials sourced during discovery from Cosby's team, like archival evidence as well as a photo of Huth and Cosby during the filming of "Let's Do It Again," the shooting and visit to the mansion happened a year later than she had recollected.
Cosby's legal team had called the date change "trial by ambush" and called for the case to be dismissed. Andrew Wyatt, Cosby's spokesman told The Times in late May that "We feel confident that the Playboy records along with Ms. Huth changing her timeline of events from 1974 to 1975 in the 11th hour will vindicate Mr. Cosby."
Sixty women have previously accused Cosby of sexual violence, harassment, and rape. Cosby has denied the allegations saying that sexual acts were consensual.