Bill Cosby found guilty of sexual assault and ordered to pay $19.25m | California

A jury in California found Bill Cosby guilty of sexual assault in a civil trial Monday and awarded Donna Motsinger $19.25 million in damages. Motsinger claimed in the lawsuit that while she was working as a waitress at a restaurant in 1972, she was drugged and raped after Cosby offered her a glass of wine in his limousine.

Motsinger sued Cosby after California changed its laws to change the statute of limitations on when accusers can file sexual assault lawsuits. In the comments after the jury verdictHe described the case as a fifty-year effort to achieve justice.

Once one of comedy’s most successful men and an entertainment icon, Cosby has largely disappeared from public view over the past decade amid widespread allegations of sexual misconduct. In addition to the dozens of women who accused Cosby of drug use and sexual assault, Cosby faced a number of civil lawsuits. Los Angeles county jurors in 2022 It was revealed that he sexually assaulted a 16-year-old girl at the Playboy mansion in 1975.

Cosby spent three years in prison after being convicted of sexual assault in 2018, but Released in 2021 After a higher court overturned the decision. The high court ruled that prosecutors violated Cosby’s rights by promising not to charge him and then filing a lawsuit against him.

Cosby’s lawyer said he plans to appeal Monday’s ruling.