Bill Cosby Found Guilty Of Sexually Assaulting A 16-Year-Old At Playboy Mansion

Bill Cosby Found Guilty Of Sexually Abusing A Minor At Playboy Mansion In 1975, Victim Awarded $500K

Bill Cosby has been found guilty of sexually abusing a 16-year-old girl at the Playboy Mansion in 1975, jurors determined on Tuesday after a nearly month-long civil trial.

Jurors in Los Angeles county ruled in favor of Judy Huth, who is now 64, awarding her $500,000 in a legal defeat for the once-beloved comedian and star of The Cosby Show.

Jurors found that Cosby intentionally caused harmful sexual contact with Huth, who he reasonably believed was under 18, and that his conduct was driven by unnatural or abnormal sexual interest in a minor. The decision brings to a close one of the final remaining legal claims against 84-year-old Cosby, who more than 50 women have accused of sexual assaults over nearly five decades.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by The Neighborhood Talk (@theneighborhoodtalk)

In court filings and in testimony at the trial, Huth said she and a friend met Cosby at a park, and that the actor later took her and her friend to the Playboy Mansion. She testified that Cosby, who was 37 at the time, assaulted her, forcing her to perform a sex act without her consent, a claim the actor has denied.

Huth, who first filed a lawsuit against Cosby in 2014, initially said the incident took place in 1974 when she was 15, but later concluded she was mistake about the year and that it happened in 1975.

Cosby, who did not appear in person at the trial, denied the allegation. In video of a deposition shown to jurors, Cosby said he did not remember Huth. But he said the incident could not have happened because he would not have pursued sexual contact at that time with someone who was under age 18.

Cosby’s spokesperson, Andrew Wyatt, said the actor’s team plans to appeal the jury’s decision, but described it as a win for the actor, noting that it was far less than the $8m Huth’s attorney, Gloria Allred, sought.