A California jury found Bill Cosby guilty of sexual assault in a civil trial on Monday, awarding Donna Motsinger $59.25m in damages. Motsinger alleged in the case that while working as a restaurant server in 1972, she was drugged and raped by Cosby after he gave her a glass of wine in his limousine.
Motsinger sued Cosby after California amended its laws to change the statutes of limitations on when accusers can file sexual assault cases. In remarks after the jury’s verdict, she described the trial as a five-decade-long effort to get justice.
Cosby, once one of the most successful men in comedy and an entertainment icon, has largely disappeared from public view in the past decade amid widespread allegations of sexual misconduct. In addition to the dozens of women who have accused Cosby of drugging and sexual assault, he has faced a series of civil trials – including Los Angeles county jurors in 2022 finding 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 was released in 2021 after a higher court reversed the decision. The higher court found that prosecutors had violated Cosby’s rights by promising not to charge him and then later pursuing a case against him.
A lawyer for Cosby stated that he plans to appeal Monday’s verdict. He has denied multiple allegations from women that he sexually assaulted them, maintaining that any encounters were consensual. Cosby did not testify in the trial.
Motsinger, 84, filed her case against Cosby in 2023. She detailed her allegations against the entertainer in a complaint that stated Cosby had lured and groomed her for assault, frequenting the restaurant that she worked at in Sausalito, California, and inviting her to attend one of his shows in San Carlos, about an hour away.
“Defendant Cosby used his enormous wealth, power, fame, and prestige, giving women like Ms Motsinger access to a world of celebrities and entertainers,” the complaint stated.
While Motsinger was traveling with Cosby to the show, the suit alleged, he gave her a glass of wine. Shortly afterwards, Motsinger began to feel sick and Cosby provided her with what she believed was an aspirin, according to the suit. Motsinger alleged that she then began to fall in and out of consciousness, eventually waking up in her home wearing only underwear and determining she had been raped.
The jury in California ruled in favor of Motsinger after three days of deliberations, initially awarding her $19.25m. During a second phase of the trial later on Monday to determine punitive damages, jurors awarded Motsinger an additional $40m.
